Effects of the Olympics on Citizens’ Interest in Foreign Cultures: Evidence from the Tokyo 2020 Games

Abstract

Governments worldwide are competing to internationalize their cities. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Japan promoted not only the construction of stadiums but also multilingual support of city facilities. However, to truly internationalize a city, considering the above facilities and systems alone is insufficient. The perspective of citizen consciousness is lacking. Existing literature on Olympic effects is largely limited to three aspects: development of urban facilities, economic effects, and strengthening of a city’s brand. Academically, little has been discussed about the impact of the Olympics on the international consciousness of citizens. Thus, this study clarified the impact of hosting the Olympics on citizen’s interest in foreign cultures. Online surveys conducted in 2019–2022 in Japan showed that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the Olympics, citizens’ interest in foreign cultures and their overall happiness did not change. However, by applying a multiple regression analysis, a positive interaction was detected between holding the Olympics and citizens’ happiness. Therefore, citizen’s interest in foreign cultures brought by the Olympics is conditional on citizens’ sense of happiness. Hence, public sentiment should be improved before the Olympics is held. Practitioners should not depend on the Olympics to instantly improve public sentiment across the board. Practitioners should consider facilities and public sentiment as two key components of urban design. Even if governments invest in equipment, if they do not obtain the cooperation of its citizens, trouble will occur, and sustainable growth will be difficult.