Struggling for new rationales to ram his wildly unpopular conspiracy bill into law recently, Shinzo Abe pulled a creative one out of his bag of spin: the 2020 Olympics.
Japan, the prime minster hinted, might have to cancel the Tokyo Games if legislation empowering the police to arrest people for crimes they haven¡¯t yet committed didn¡¯t pass ¡ª even keeping a straight face. We¡¯ve seen this movie before: ¡°Minority Report,¡± Steven Spielberg¡¯s sci-fi take on a future where ¡°pre-crime¡± cops do their worst. Yet Japan may be courting a dystopia of another kind by its pinning the future on a few sporting events three years from now.
As Abe¡¯s team details plans to revive growth and increase competitiveness, four numbers keep coming up: 2020. When officials explain how they plan to boost innovation and increase Japan¡¯s soft-power footprint, five rings keep coming up: those of the International Olympic Committee. When asked for Japan¡¯s strategy to compete in an increasingly Chinese world, Abe¡¯s team consistently serves up some variation of ¡°just wait until the Summer Games ¡ª you¡¯ll see!¡±
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