In March 2013, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Evaluation Commission, which is responsible for inspecting candidate cities, conducted an official visit to Tokyo for a week. For homeless communities, however, the Olympic year is nothing but an ominous one. The year 2020 will be remembered as the year of the Tokyo Olympics. It’s been an annual tradition for nearly 20 years, making warm meals and bedding in almost-freezing temperatures. Since all of the dayworker centers and city offices are closed for the holiday, around this time of year, homeless people come together by building tents and sharing meals. A few blocks away at a small playground, around 50 homeless people who live in parks, together with their supporters, quietly congregated to welcome the New Year. More than 100,000 were gathering there to celebrate the New Year’s Eve countdown. Tokyo, Japan-Flocks of young people and tourists seeped past like muddy streams, filling the world-famous Shibuya Scramble intersection. As the city prepares to host the games later this year, RioOnWatch remains committed to serving as an Olympic watchdog news site and supporting Olympic resistance movements around the world. Cross-published in collaboration with the Los Angeles-based platform KNOCK, Ogawa’s firsthand account of ongoing removals provides a close look at the effects of the privatization of public spaces in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The following is an op-ed by Tetsuo Ogawa, a Tokyo homeless resident and housing activist.
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