Five years ago, , noted how many athletes at the Rio Olympics had tattoos and speculated that the 2020 Games might change Japanese attitudes toward them.
¡°Over the past few decades, tattooing¡¯s image in Japan has slowly been softening and evolving,¡± he wrote. ¡°Tokyo 2020 will bring competitors, fans and money into the country. But we¡¯ll have to see if it brings changed attitudes.¡±
If these changed attitudes included tattoos on Japan¡¯s own team of athletes, then Ashcraft¡¯s hopes were premature. At least for events in which extensive amounts of an athletes¡¯ skin were exposed ¡ª swimming, diving, track and so on ¡ª scant evidence of tattooing could be found.
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