Tokyo is chosen as the host of 2020 summer Olympics after a head-to-head vote against Istanbul. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that hosting the 2020 Olympics would be an "explosive agent" for the national economy, and Japan's stock exchange, the Nikkei, obligingly soared in anticipation of a golden new era. To prepare for the Olympic, Tokyo has already set aside 400 billion yen to splurge on the building and refurbishing of 10 sports venues in the capital (Fitzpatrick 2013).

However, some opponents declared that Japan doesn’t need to dope its infrastructure investment when the public debt is already twice Japan's $5 trillion economy (Fitzpatrick 2013). Equal to 230% of its GDP these days, its debt-to-GDP ratio is the highest of all the developed countries in the world. Besides that, much of that debt was amassed from spending on wasteful infrastructure projects in the 1980s and 1990s. Guilford (2013) stated that Tokyo’s winning 2020 Olympics bid would only worsen Japan’s debt.

Additionally, Japan not only suffer in long – foreseen debt crisis but also other problems such as war drums are beating in Beijing and Tokyo over some far-off disputed islands, tsunami and nuclear meltdown-affected areas are still waiting to be reclaimed and rebuilt. According to the statistic, there still have 215,000 survivors who refuge in 448 cramped and jury-rigged accommodation after it was downtrodden by natural and man-made disasters in 2011. While Japan's central government seems at a loss to explain why there is so little to show for last year's 10 trillion yen disaster rebuilding budget, they had set aside 400 billion yen to splurge on the building and refurbishing of 10 sports venues in the capital to pay for the game (Fitzpatrick 2013).

Moreover, some of the defenders of the Olympics invariably endeavor to go round these kinds of short-term cost-benefit imbalances by demanding that critics consider the longer-term positives in the shape of image and attitudinal shifts toward the host city and nation. They claimed that these will help to boost the economic as it increases international visibility and better economic prospects especially tourism industry. However, none of these advantages are available to London in 2012. The city is already a world-famous tourist destination; none of its landmarks are likely to be unfamiliar to the global media attending or the global audience following the Games on TV. The boom in budget airline travel is long past since Olympic Games only last 28 days (Perryman 2012). Also, there are only 95,000 hotel rooms in Tokyo; it's hard to accommodate 8 million tourists unless there is a sudden boom in hotel building (Fitzpatrick 2013). Therefore, any financial benefit from the Olympic tourism is exclusively short-term and hotel-specific.

To sum it up, the economic impact of 2020 Olympics is less than 0.1% Of GDP according to the Barclays analysts. Most of the analysts believe that there is not much boost to annual gross domestic product and the impact is also likely to be broaden and spread thinly over several sectors, and brings risks related to deficit spending (Rudarakanchana 2013).

In my opinion, Japan as the host of Olympic 2020 not only seals the revival of their long-stagnant economy but also the sagging spirits (Kurtenbach 2013). Japanese has lost their confidence after suffer for years of economic stagnation, long-foreseen debt crisis and the leaky troubles of the Fukushima triple meltdown. All of these problems had severe damage on Japanese’s confidence. There are hundreds of Japanese athletes and officials gathered downtown in the early morning announcement. They are jumping up and down, shouting "Banzai!" and hugging in unusually demonstrative reactions to the announcement of the International Olympic Committee. The Japanese people cheered the news all across the country. They believe that the 2020 Olympics could help to rejuvenate Japan so this is a good chance for Japanese to stand up and regain their confidence (Agence France-Presse 2013).

Besides that, Olympic 2020 will also provide job opportunity for about 150,000 that is able to revive Japan’s stagnant economy (Rudarakanchana 2013). Also, the traditional culture of Japan - Bushido also influenced Japanese as they will work harder and be loyal to their country (Sonda 2007). Thus, it will become a momentum that drives the stability of economy in Japan.

Also, a lot of people felt that Japanese government should not spend much on infrastructure as many victims of 2011 earthquake are still living in temporary homes. However, if they are able to manage it at the right pace, infrastructure spending could renew aging public infrastructure including roads, subways as well as mitigate disaster impacts. As a result, I believe that hosting 2020 Olympic in Japan not only bring negative but also positive impacts to them (Rudarakanchana 2013).

References

Fitzpatrick, M 2013, Tokyo Olympic games: No economic miracle for Japan, CNN Money, viewed 15 September 2013,

<http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/09/12/tokyo-olympics/>.

Perryman, M 2012, Do the Olympics Boost the Economy? Studies show the Impact Is Likely Negative, The Daily Beast, viewed 15 September2013,

<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/30/do-the-olympics-boost-the-economy-studies-show-the-impact-is-likely-negative.html>.

Rudarakanchana, N 2013, Tokyo Olympics 2020: Modest, Broad Economic Impact Is Less Than 0.1% of GDP, International Business time, viewed 15 September 2013,

<http://www.ibtimes.com/tokyo-olympics-2020-modest-broad-economic-impact-less-01-gdp-1403774>.

Agence France-Presse 2013, Olympics could revive Japan’s stagnant economy, say expert, Interaktv, viewed 15 September 2013,

<http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/olympics-could-revive-japans-stagnant-economy-say-experts>.

Guilford, G 2013, Tokyo’s winning 2020 Olympics bid will only worsen Japan’s debt headache, WordPress, viewed 15 September 2013,

<http://qz.com/122238/tokyo-2020-olympic-games-japan-debt/#122238/tokyo-2020-olympic-games-japan-debt>.

Sonda, N 2007, “Bushido (Chivalry) and the Traditional Japanese Moral Education,” Journal of Bahá‟í Studies, vol. 1, no. 469-477, viewed 16 September 2013,

< http://oj.bahaistudies.net/OJBS_1_Sonda_Bushido.pdf>.