Chapter 4 - From “Selfless Hospitality” to “Get Out”: Disrupting the 2020 Games

Summary

Abstract

In this chapter the author explores how disruptions caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have created tensions and clashes with the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games’ vision of “Unity in Diversity” and “United by Emotion,” as seen in increasing xenophobia and protest against the Games. It is argued that the polite undertones of “selfless hospitality” (omotenashi) resonate with the impolite demands to “get out” in a way which demonstrates the fragile nature of omotenashi as an act of un/welcoming the foreign.

Keywords: im/politeness, hospitality, omotenashi, Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, anti-Olympic protests, framing

Introduction

The 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, (hereafter 2020 Games) were postponed to the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2021 as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The conceptual welcoming of visitors to Japan which was mobilised through the notion of おもてなし [omotenashi] (hospitality) in the 2013 bid for the 2020 Games took on a decidedly “unwelcoming” turn as Tokyo and the surrounding areas entered a fourth period of state of emergency prior to the Opening Ceremony (July 23, 2021). An anti-Olympic movement had been active since the bidding stage (Holthus et al., 2020), but dissatisfaction grew even more acute as the domestic medical system came under great stress, a large percentage of the population were yet to be vaccinated, and borders remained closed to many non-Japanese residents. Reports of anti-Olympic protests appeared in the mainstream press globally as IOC members began to assemble for the Opening Ceremony and protestors gathered at key sites. The hashtag #バッハ帰れ [#Bachkaere] (#getoutBach) gained traction on social media.

Politeness and impoliteness are situated evaluations (Haugh, 2013, pp. 8–9; Davies et al., 2013) which are enacted within localised ideologies (Dunn, 2011; Eelen, 2001; Mills, 2003; Pizziconi, 2006). The omotenashi discourse emerging from the 2013 bid mobilises politeness in the preparation and staging of a mega-event, the hashtag activism using imperatives such as #Bachkaere mobilises impoliteness to contradict the polite posturing of the official discourse. Although very different genres, both campaigns mobilise im/politeness as a pivotal component and exploit social norms of what is, and how to be, polite (Watts, 1992; Jary, 1998, Ohashi, 2008).