Dr. Barbara Holthus of the German Institute for Japanese Studies explains to the Princeton East Asian Studies community her research on volunteers for the Tokyo 2020 in 2021. The world’s largest sport mega-event, a matter of contention even without a raging pandemic, has been on the drawing board in Japan for more than a decade. This long road from the failed application for Tokyo 2016 to the successful bid in 2013 to the first-ever postponement of the Games due to COVID-19, to eventually holding them in the summer of 2021 is a road heavily travelled by numerous stakeholders in the economy, in politics, and in the media.
