Japanese Teenagers Looking Forward to Tokyo 2020
Society Tokyo 2020- English
- 日本語
- 简体字
- 繁體字
- Français
- Español
- العربية
- Русский
It is now less than a year until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics finally get underway. Around 70% of Japanese 17- to 19-year-olds are looking forward to either or both events, according to an online survey conducted by the Nippon Foundation from late May to early June. Some 39.5% of these youngsters—not yet born at the time of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano—were looking forward specifically to the Olympics, 1.3% to the Paralympics, and 27.7% to both.
Specific reasons cited for why respondents are looking forward to the upcoming games included: “I want to actually attend an event because it will probably be the only Olympics hosted in my country during my lifetime”; “It’s a chance to see athletes my age competing”; “I’m looking forward to seeing how much enthusiasm is generated in Japan from hosting the event.”
However, among those surveyed, only 19.9% had actually applied for the chance to purchase tickets (including those whose family members applied for them) and just 8% have applied to be an Olympic volunteer.
Survey respondents were most interested in swimming, while athletics, usually considered as the main event of most Olympics, was the third-most popular. There is also a high level of interest in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics. Meanwhile, judo and wrestling did not even place in the top ten, even though Japan won many medals in those events at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Respondents thought that the main problems that could impede the success of the upcoming Olympics, were “high temperatures” (cited by 30.4% of those surveyed), “terrorism” (24.1%), and “traffic congestion” (20.3%).
Events/Ceremonies with the Highest Level of Interest
| Olympics | Paralympics | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Swimming | Wheelchair basketball |
| 2 | Opening ceremony | Opening ceremony |
| 3 | Athletics | Wheelchair tennis |
| 4 | Baseball / softball | Athletics |
| 5 | Soccer | Swimming |
| 6 | Volleyball | Closing ceremony |
| 7 | Table tennis | Badminton |
| 8 | Tennis | Five-a-side soccer |
| 9 | Closing ceremony | Table tennis |
| 10 | Badminton | Archery |
Compiled by Nippon.com based on a survey by the Nippon Foundation.
In another survey, Jiji Press asked 2,000 men and women whether they were interested in watching any events live. A combined total of 37.1% said they would “very much” like to attend or would do so “if possible,” while 38.4% said that they were “not so interested” and 24.0% said they had “no interest at all” in attending.
Among people who did not want to go to a venue, 71.2% said that watching on TV is fine, while 40.0% pointed to the inconvenience of attending because events are too far away and 23.4% said that the tickets for the events they were interested in are too expensive and hard to obtain.
(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Jiji.)