Lots of people around the world have feelings against the selection of Tokyo, Japan as the venue of the 2020 Olympic Games. The following are the reasons:
First, there is serious political, social and military instability in Tokyo, Japan.
Despite the constant protests of the world public, the Japanese Government continues visits to Yasukuni Shrine and persistently lays the far-fetched territorial claims to Diaoyu Islands of China, the Kurils of Russia and Tok Islets of Korea, thus sparking military antagonism with those countries.
There is, therefore, no reason whatsoever for China, Russia, North Korea, South Korea and many other countries not to deny the participation in the Tokyo Olympics, and even if they participate, there is no guarantee that the safety of the sportspersons and tourists from those countries would be ensured.
Moreover, the Japanese live in horror due to horrible crimes that are prevalent in the country and many foreigners are reluctant to visit Japan.
According to the survey data made public by the National Police Agency of Japan, 939 cases of murder and attempted murder were officially registered in Japan in 2013.
Murderers are being executed as was reported by the Kyodo News Agency and the US Treasury Department is applying economic sanctions against the Japanese gangsters.
But the number of crimes does not show any sign of decline in Japan. Even US President Barrack Obama called the Japanese gangsters “international criminal gangs”.
Second, Tokyo is an area contaminated by radio-activity.
As is known world-wide, on March 11, 2011, an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richer Scale occurred in the sea off northeast Japan, triggering off catastrophic tsunami.
This led to the consecutive explosions of nuclear reactors of the Fukushima Atomic Power Plant, causing the massive radio-active damage.
As the atomic reactors had not undergone regular repairment, they began to give off huge amount of Cesium-137, Strontium-90 and other radio-active material extremely harmful to human body from the moment of their explosions.
According to the announcement made by Tokyo Electric Corporation on December 16, 2013, radio-active substances were detected at a high density of 1.4 million Bq (Becquerel) per liter in a well at the Fukushima Power Plant in mid-December, 2013, which is 127,300 times higher than 11 Bq allowed for drinking water. NHK recently reported that radio-active matters have been detected even in the underground water deep below the Power Plant.
Tokyo is only 200 km away from the Fukushima Power Plant and is situated in the same coast as the Power Plant facing the Pacific Ocean. This means that Tokyo has also been contaminated by radio-activity to a certain degree through air, land and sea. As the half-life of radio-active matters is about 30 years, the radio-activity would decrease half the 2011 figure only in 2041.
Experts say that it is impossible to fully shield the high concentration radio-activity that has constantly been leaking from the Fukushima Power Plant and this gives great harm to human body. Once the human body is exposed to the least radio-active rays, it will cause metabolic disorder, rapid aging and outbreak of ill-defined diseases.
Third, Tokyo lies in a seismic fault-line and is beset with the danger of earthquakes, tsunami and volcanic eruption.
Japan tops the world list in frequency and magnitude of earthquakes. About 10, 000 earthquakes have occurred in Japan every year since 1970 out of which those measuring above 5 on the Richter Scale numbered 100 on an annual basis
Mr. Nakamura, 64, a Japanese Indian residing in Bombay, said that he visited Japan around 100 times over the last 40 years and there was not even a single time in which he had not experienced earthquake.
The reason that Japan is hit by earthquake so often is that the Japanese archipelago lies on the line where four large tectonic plates (Eurasian, North American, Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates) meet and that the Pacific and Philippine tectonic plates slowly move westward to go under the Eurasian plate.
Distinguished experts of Japan and the United States see that Tokyo being situated in the seismic fault-line, is likely to be hit by a huge earthquake in around 2020.
On December 19, 2013, the Central Disaster Prevention Council of Japan proclaimed that in the event of the occurrence of a 7.3-magnitude earthquake in downtown Tokyo, it will claim 23,000 lives and cause economic damage running around ￥95, 300 billion, which is equivalent to the annual national budget of Japan.
The probability of actual occurrence of such earthquake in Tokyo is estimated to be 70% within 30 years, they said. Mr. Oike Kazuo, director of the International Institute for Advanced Studies of Japan, said that a Tokyo earthquake is expected within seven to 17 years.
The period of 2020 Olympic Games happened to be set in the dangerous period full of the risk of earthquake in Tokyo area.
It is a general perception that, in case an earthquake occurs in a seashore area, it will be followed by seismic waves which are usually more catastrophic. As Tokyo is a seaside city, it is also vulnerable to tsunami.
After the catastrophic earthquake on March 11, 2011, 1, 050 volcanic earthquakes have been recorded around the Hakone Mountain not far away from Tokyo and the number of earthquakes rose much higher at 14 acting volcanoes including Hakone, which increased the phobia of volcanic eruptions among the Japanese.
This serves as another omen of a huge earthquake and tsunami in Tokyo area.
Japan is not high in the academic standard of earthquake forecasts. Typical evidence is that they failed to forecast the great earthquake in the sea off the northeast of Japan on March 11, 2011. This is one reason showing that Japan is not capable to give assurances that no earthquake would occur during the 2020 Olympic Games.
As seen above, Tokyo is a dangerous place to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Therefore, the Japanese Government should give up the hosting of the Olympic Games, and the International Olympic Committee is advised to select a city of another country as the venue of the 2020 Olympics in response to the demand of the world people in order to guarantee the safety of the prominent sportspersons of the world and the tourists and thus contribute to development of the sacred cause of Olympiad.
By Kumar Gupta, A Indian scholar