[WSMDiscuss] call for the cancellation of Tokyo 2020 Olympics [Worldwide Collection of Signatures]

[Toshimaru Ogura]

Dear friends,

We have started worldwide petition against 2020 Tokyo Olympics as
follows. Please sign and forword this message to your friends.

with solidarity
toshi from Japan

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Online Signature site
http://www.2020okotowa.link/202102cancellation_tokyo2020/

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Two declarations on the state of emergency – Fukushima and Tokyo:
# Don’t allow Yoshiro Mori’s discrimination against women # We
call for the cancellation of Tokyo 2020 Olympics [Worldwide
Collection of Signatures] Please do not tolerate Yoshiro Mori’s
discriminatory remarks against women and support our call for the
cancellation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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Proposers:
2020 Olympics Disaster Okotowalink
http://www.2020okotowa.link/
Art Exhibition Executive Committee Declaring the End of the Olympics
https://end-of-olympics.tumblr.com/

Submit to:
Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee
Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC)

Japan is currently under the declaration of two states of
emergency. One is the declaration of a state of emergency for
COVID-19 infection issued to 11 prefectures including Tokyo in
January this year, and the other one is the declaration of a
nuclear emergency issued due to the disastrous accident at the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power
Company on March 11, 2011.Then there are on going protests all
over the world against sexist remarks by Yoshiro Mori, the
President of the Organizing Committee.

Ten years have passed since the nuclear accident in Fukushima,
which was caused by a Tokyo-based company in order to produce
electricity for consumption in Tokyo, but as of the end of
December 2008, 67,000 residents were still evacuated to various
parts of Japan.

At the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where the accident
occurred, radioactive contamination of 20 to 40 quadrillion
becquerels was found just the other day. As we are forced to
rethink the whole process of containment, which is said to last
for decades, including the removal of debris, 4,000 workers are
still engaged in high-dose radiation work every day.

A series of moves that seem all too hasty, such as the release of
increasingly contaminated water into the ocean and calls for a
reduction in the number of thyroid tests, are continuing.

During the period of the declaration of the COVID-19 emergency,
more than 1,000 new positive cases are confirmed every day, but
since January 22, after the scale of the “active epidemiological
survey” which examines people who have had close contact with the
disease, has been reduced, the number of people who have been
found to be infected has been decreasing. On the other hand, of
the 4,700 secured hospital beds in metropolitan and public
hospitals, 2,888 people are hospitalized (out of the 265 beds for
the seriously-injured, 150 people have already been allocated),
4,800 infected people are waiting to be hospitalized, and 6,600
people are receiving treatment at home.

All infected people and health care workers, both public and
private, are confronting this challenge, but even if the number of
infected people announced in the survey decreases, the number of
victims will not decrease, and it will only spread the breeding
ground for the fourth wave.

It was reported that as many as 80% of the respondents to a public
opinion poll made the very honest judgment that it would be
impossible to hold the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer
under such circumstances. Even with less than six months to go,
40% of the sports are still undecided about who will represent
them. In light of the President Yoshiro Mori’s astonishing
statement, “If you ask me if there are criteria for judging
(safety and security), there aren’t any,” it is no wonder that
the “the three C’s[closed spaces, crowded places, close-contact
settings] investigation” during the J-League Cup final held at
the National Stadium on January 4 and the test events that will
resume in March are being criticized as human experimentation for
the Olympics.

Nevertheless, the Tokyo metropolitan government is said to be
responsible for at least ¥717 billion for the Tokyo Olympics,
including the additional cost of postponement. Furthermore, the
Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto announced at the end of January
that she plans to recruit 10,000 medical personnel to help fight
infection during the Olympics. Under the current emergency
situation, how can we pull out valuable medical staff presently
supporting the critically strained medical system for the
Olympics? Do you really think such a thing is acceptable?

The vaccine, which does not take into account the risk of
speed-before-quality will not be administered for the sake of the
Olympics. And there is absolutely no way that herd immunity will
be achieved in time for this summer. Rather, you should deeply
regret that your obsession with hosting the Olympic and Paralympic
Games is depriving us of resources for COVID-19 control.

For example, the purpose of Tokyo 2020 has been changed from
“Fukushima reconstruction Olympics” to “proof that humanity has
defeated corona[COVID-19],” just like the shock doctrine of
“good fishing in troubled waters”. The controversial message
from President Bach, “Please be patient, people of Japan,”
sounds like he is asking for patience until he is elected
president at the IOC General Assembly on March 11, the 10th
remembrance of the nuclear accident. It is not us who have to be
patient, but the organizing committee, the IOC and other people
involved in the Games, and the athletes, including Olympians and
Paralympians.

Under these circumstances, on February 3, Yoshiro Mori, President
of the Organizing Committee, made an outrageous misogynistic
remark during an special meeting of the JOC Council: “Meetings
with a lot of women attendees take time. It was reported that none
of the participating council members saw the comment as a problem,
and that “there was even laughter” (Asahi, Feb. 4,
2021). Foreign media reacted sensitively, that the New York Times
reported with the headline “Yoshiro Mori suggested women’s
speaking time in meetings should be limited,” and the Tokyo
Olympics Organizing Committee, which is already struggling with
the increased cost of the Games and public opposition, was to face
“new furor”.

President Mori has repeatedly made problematic statements when he
was Prime Minister. We should not see his this time remark as
something personal. We have long pointed out that the founder of
the Olympic Games, Coubertin himself, was a strong sexist, and
that the Olympics have always been accompanied by sexism,
including sexual harassment, violence, and gender dualism within
the Games, and that it is the Olympics itself that contains such
discrimination. In this sense, the Organizing Committee, with
President Mori at the top, is in a sense embodying the spirit of
the Olympics. We don’t want to see another travesty like this.

The Olympics, no matter when or where they are held, are a
“disaster” that cannot be held without sexism, promiscuous use
of national prestige, rampant use of bribes and concessions,
destruction of the natural environment, and destruction of the
lives of residents by venue construction and urban development.

It is outrageous that the government is trying to force through
the Olympic and Paralympic Games while two states of emergency are
declared and sexual discrimination is left unresolved.

Efforts to prevent COVID-19 infection will still continue. Many
resources will be needed for policies to protect employment and
livelihoods. And above all, we need to invest a lot of workforce
and money in the work to control the TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiich
nuclear power plant accident, which will continue for decades, and
in the reconstruction of the hometown in Fukushima. Tokyo,Japan
and perhaps the world, which is facing a debt crisis and climate
crisis, cannot afford to have an athletic meet of money pit called
the Olympics and Paralympics anymore.

February 2021

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Online Signature site
http://www.2020okotowa.link/202102cancellation_tokyo2020/

Please write the name of the organization or individual and the
location (country/region).

Please send your signature to: no-olympics-shomei at protonmail.com

First Collection Deadline: February 19

Contact: +81-080-5052-0270 (Miyazaki, Olympics Disaster Okotowalink)

The signatures received will not be used for any purpose other
than submitting them to the Organizing Committee, the JOC and
announcing the number of signatures.

Endorsements can be made in any of the following ways

(1) Use the signature site
http://www.2020okotowa.link/202102cancellation_tokyo2020/

(2) Send by email
no-olympics-shomei at protonmail.com

Please help us spread send our appeal.
http://www.2020okotowa.link/
https://twitter.com/Link_NoTokyo5O
https://www.facebook.com/okotowalink
Street Action
February 20(Sat), 2pm – Action in front of JOC
March 6 (Sat) afternoon, demonstration (details to follow)
Art Exhibition Declaring the End of the Olympics
At Kagurazaka Session House from Feb. 6
https://twitter.com/end_of_olympics

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Tosimaru Ogura
toshi at jca.apc.org
http://www.2020okotowa.link/