Why Was The Opening Ceremony 　　So Boring?---The Ceremony of the Ojisan*, by the Ojisan, for the Ojisan

*ojisan (おじさん）is a common Japanese word to call middle aged males, which is originally the name to call your parent’s male siblings, oji (叔父、伯父) with san(さん), a respectful suffix of calling names or persons.

Did you see the opening?

　　　　　Did you see the Olympic Opening Ceremony? Did I? Yes and no. A few minutes. Only two parts: at the moments when the three Japanese Baseball legends appeared and the Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic Flame in the Cauldron. Seeing only those scenes, I felt very awkward. I’d like to think about why I felt like that. (I didn’t watch the whole ceremony so I got other pieces of it through the news, the mentions by people, the pictures and the videos on the Internet, etc..)

The Motto ‘United by Emotion’ —How do you understand it?

　　　　　The motto of the Tokyo 2020 is ‘United by Emotion’ and the opening ceremony’s concept is ‘Moving forward’. I can understand what they would like to mean with those expressions. However, they definitely sound different from they intended and a little bit strange to English native speakers. How did those errors happen? The Organizing Committee should have had them checked by specialists because it’s very difficult to correctly convey meanings in a foreign language. 

　　　　　I don’t think that the Committee has cared about the language diversity including the sign languages for the hearing impaired people. They never paid the volunteer translators and surprisingly they didn’t hire the sign language translators for the opening ceremony broadcasting. What a failure! What a shame!

No awareness of the universal challenges and values in the world

　　　　　The ceremony’s reputation is terrible: That was the most boring opening ceremony that I’ve ever seen. / Like a funeral. / Whimper/…Why so bad? How did it become like that?

　　　　　First of all, the Organizing Committee was a hundred-percent subcontracted to Dentsu, the biggest advertising company in Japan. Dentsu call for a lot of creators for the project of planning the ceremony. Until last summer a female choreographer was the chief of the project; her plan was favored by the IOC officials and the project was on the right track. However, something bad was going on behind her back and she was not able to keep on her project because Dentsu wasn’t in touch with her at all. The fact was that a male creative director of Dentsu, who has directed a lot of CM films, excluded her from the project without any discussion at the meetings or explanation in person with her. He consequently drove her to resign from her position. In short, he stole the project from her. Then a lot of creators and artists who supported her also left with her. 

　　　　　Eventually the CM director had to resign for his own insulting statements about a female performer’s appearance in this March. The resignation followed Yoshiro Mori’s resignation in February. Resignation of the creators and the artists followed more: three of the creators stepped down for their scandals when it was less than one week before the ceremony: the past bullying case, the history of the Nazi joke performance, and the pedophilic comment. 

　　　　　Second, the ceremony was like a patchwork of short scenes with no crucial message as a whole or no challenges in common in the world that should be solved such as stopping the climate changing, or fighting for the gender equality, LGBTQ’s right, and so on. There was no ideals or direction showed that Japanese society should achieve. Even an innovative technology that is Japan’s cutting-edge wasn’t presented. Each part was colorful and fun but empty as a whole. 

　　　　　The ceremony like that related to a corporate culture of Dentsu: advertising and marketing are their main parts of job. That is to manipulate people’s minds. Their main aim is gaining profits. Showing the ideals, the universal values, or the common interests is unnecessary. The company’s human resources are male centered and full of cronyism (employed persons from famous politicians’ and entertainers’ families and relatives). Obviously full of sexism, lookism, misogyny, and any other shallow and superficial attractions. The director and the staff were unaware of the universal challenges and values. So was the Organizing Committee. 

A little domestic message toward the very limited generations

　　　　　On the other hand, there were a little message to draw attention of the older generations of Japanese people: the Kabuki actor did the traditional ritual, ‘Nirami (にらみ)’, a glare to drive away diseases or evil spirits. People in Edo period believed that the famous Kabuki actor’s eye power of gaze could prevent diseases. That was a kind of a spiritual tradition of Japan.

　　　　　Around the end of the torch relay, three Japanese professional baseball legends appeared, Sadaharu Oh who has the world record of home runs, Shigeo Nagashima who embodies Yomiuri Giants, the legendary team, and Hideki Matsui who played seven seasons for New York Yankees. They are still very popular among people in their 70s~80s.

Change the male-centered and patriarchal culture 

　　　　　I really thought there was almost nothing to see in the ceremony. I felt so sad that nothing innovative in technology or artistic expression was presented. The Organizing Committee has been making nothing but wrong decisions. When did our country get on the wrong track? 

　　　　　The Committee as well as Dentsu are the typical male-centered and patriarchal organizations: their members sometimes ignore the process of discussion, reaching agreements and making decisions as a group. They tend to obey their boss or someone with a loud voice. They never listen to the minority’s voice. They exclude female opinions. They never ask to themselves how legally and ethically right it is when they starts something because anything enjoyable and profitable is OK. That’s their rules. They don’t care the human rights and dignity to gain profits and public attention. 

　　　　　The point is if aged males really understand those problems. In every field, I want Ojisan to step down from a position of decision making. The organizations should make an effort to change their culture into a gender equal, caring about communication and discussion, and allowing try-and-error-and-correct process. 

　　　　　You have to speak up that something of the ojisan, by the ojisan and for the ojisan should be stoped. At least, let’s say that’s not cool when you see or hear those kind of things.