Hoping to generate an Olympic buzz at home and overseas, Tokyo’s 2020 organizers kicked off the countdown to the games on Monday — exactly three years before the opening ceremony — by releasing the lyrics for a promotional theme song and summer dance.

But the preparations for the Tokyo Olympics are not all fun and games because delays in construction and other problems are threatening the quadrennial event.

On Monday morning, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee President Yoshiro Mori appeared on stage at the Toranomon Hills complex in Minato Ward to express his hopes for a successful Olympics.

Wearing a yukata (summer kimono) printed with the Olympic logo, Mori was accompanied by Olympics minister Tamayo Marukawa and a bevy of Olympians, including former soccer player Homare Sawa, who won a silver medal at the 2012 London Games.

The song, with which the organizer is aiming to promote the Japanese summer festivals, turned out to be a new version of “Tokyo Gorin Ondo,” the theme song for the 1964 Summer Olympics, with lyrics updated to include the Paralympians. The official version, which was not played, will be performed by singers Sayuri Ishikawa, Yuzo Kayama and Pistol Takehara.

At a meeting later in the day, Mori urged the games organizers to speed up their preparations to meet the tight schedule. “The problems with Loop Road No. 2 have been lingering” Mori said in his opening remarks. “We need to team up with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and proceed as quickly as possible.”

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is rushing to complete a new section of the thoroughfare that will connect the athletes’ village in the Harumi district in Chuo Ward with the center of the city.

Japan gears up to welcome inbound tourists between now and the Tokyo Olympics. The number of tourists visiting Japan hit a record high of 7.2m in the second quarter of 2017, with the booming tourism industry buoyed by a jump in visitors from neighbouring Asian nations.

Tourist numbers in the three months from April to July were up 21.1 per cent compared with the same period a year ago, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. Tourist spending during the period rose 13 per cent year-on-year to a record ¥1.8tn ($15.8bn).

The figures suggest that inbound tourism — one of the main engines for Japan’s economic growth in recent years — continues to grow strongly, fuelled by recent yen weakness.

“Spending by tourists from Korea, Hong Kong and other countries was higher than last year, pushing up the total,” said the JTA. The yen is trading at about ¥112 per dollar, having been closer to ¥100 a year ago.

The number of tourists in the quarter from South Korea rose 68 per cent year-on-year to 1.7m, from Hong Kong 38 per cent to 593,000 and Taiwan 8 per cent to 1.3m.

However, visitor numbers from China, the mainstay of Japan’s tourism boom, rose just 1.8 per cent to 1.6m, while there was robust growth in visitors from the US, up 15 per cent to 404,000.

Source: The Japan Times , The Financial Times‎