Playful protests and contested urban space: The 2020 Tokyo olympics protest movement

Abstract

This paper analyzes playful activities within protests against the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It examines their relationship with contested urban space and the legacy of Heisei-era social movements in Japan as well as other anti-Olympics activism. It argues that these practices represent a creative, cultural dimension of the opposition to 2020. This paper examines protests that have taken place against the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, focusing on the activities of one group and analyzing them as a form of “play” and cultural creativity contesting urban spaces. In this way, the paper highlights an aspect of the protests that links to earlier social movements in Japan as well as a style of protest that transcends the negativity often associated with anti-Olympics activism. The 2020 Olympics have attracted controversy and criticism for a wide range of reasons, not least the way the Games are presented by the organizers as the “recovery Games” for the Tōhoku region (Singler 2019). A lesser-known cause of opposition is the evictions of homeless communities from Meiji Park and Miyashita Park and the redevelopment of those locations (the former for the New National Stadium and surrounding facilities; the latter for a new hotel and commercial complex by Shibuya City). Campaigners from the movement claim the loss of these parks amounts to the privatization of public space in that the land is sold off and the socially vulnerable (such as the park-dwelling homeless or the tenants of the Kasumigaoka Apartments, a public housing complex that was also demolished as part of the redevelopment of the stadium area) are excluded from locations they have a right to use. “Developers and cities started to look at public parks as unused resources and a city parks law was revised in order for private capital to gain easier access to public parks. Among the various excuses used to support the transformation of city parks into private property, the Olympics have frequently provided justification,” writes Ogawa Tetsuo (2020), one of the leading activists. “If you are a homeless person living in a potential Olympic city, you are not allowed to exist there any longer.”.