No.59 From Rio to Tokyo! The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are finally underway

Mario, holding a red ball, jumped into the drain at Shibuya Crossing and instantly warped to Brazil on the opposite side of the Earth, where, surprisingly, Prime Minister Abe stood up from the drain that suddenly appeared in the center of the stadium!
After the Olympic flag was handed over from the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro to IOC President and then to Governor Yuriko Koike, a 12-minute show introducing the next Olympic host city was uniquely themed around Japanese anime culture and received high praise from overseas media.
This year, the 31st Summer Olympic Games were held in Rio de Janeiro, the first in South America, concluding 17 days of fierce competition on August 21, 2016.
Japan won a record 41 medals, surpassing the previous record of 38 from the London Games, ranking 6th in gold medals and 7th overall.
While participation is important and we shouldn't be overly fixated on the number of medals, seeing results that greatly exceed the initial target of over 30 medals increases expectations for the next Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
It is concerning that the number of sports in which medals were won decreased from 13 to 10 compared to the previous games, but the JOC aims for the third highest number of gold medals at the next Tokyo Games, and we want to support the realization of that dream.
In this tournament, notable achievements included Kohei Uchimura's consecutive wins in men's gymnastics, Kaori Icho's fourth consecutive win in women's wrestling, Kosuke Hagino's 400-meter individual medley in swimming, and Rie Kaneto's gold in the women's 200-meter breaststroke, along with the revival of judo for both men and women and the first gold medal in women's badminton by the

By the way, I believe that three issues were raised in this tournament. They are cost control, security measures, and the doping problem.
The total hosting cost, which includes the expenses for venue maintenance and operation, has been on a rising trend every time, and it is said that the London Games cost about 1.5 trillion yen, while Rio managed to keep it to about 460 billion yen, which is one-third of that. There are aspects, such as the temporary stands made of exposed single-pipe scaffolding, that would be difficult to replicate directly in Japan, but efforts to reduce costs and effectively utilize resources after the tournament are things that can be done starting now.
Regarding security measures, it is said that there was no major chaos, thanks to the introduction of 85,000 security personnel, which is more than double that of the London Games. I believe Japan has an advantage in terms of security, but we must not be complacent.
The doping issue is a deep-rooted challenge that has not been resolved. Japan has never had a violator in any of the past Olympics. Because our country is pure and clean, I believe this is a good opportunity to assert anti-doping measures to the world. Doping, which sacrifices one's own body for temporary results, is contrary to the principle of athlete first.
This article is being written during the Paralympics, but there seems to be too much time between the closing of the Olympics and this event, and I feel that media coverage is somewhat lacking. I hope for further integration of both events in the next Tokyo Games.