![]() “The Olympics? They don’t make the headlines here,” said Wataru Oya, 60. Many on social media reacted to the IOC’s take, saying it was insensitive and out of touch.īut some Tokyoites, particularly those living in Sanya, known as a habitat of day laborers and low-income residents, might agree with Adams and would say-although for a much different reason-that the Olympics are taking place in a parallel world. He said athletes and staff of the Olympics are subject to strict infection controls and are “living in a different parallel world” so that the Games have little to do with the skyrocketing COVID-19 cases in Tokyo. International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams drew much flak on social media from remarks he made during a July 29 news conference. “That drone thing was beautiful,” he said. White rice and natto (fermented soybeans) are his primary sustenance.īecause of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is not much contact among the tenants, Kanazawa said.Įarlier this year, a resident on his floor tested positive for the novel coronavirus, prompting a ban on tenants from visiting one another.Īlone in his room, Kanazawa watched the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on TV, which included a fleet of drones hovering in a spectacular light show above the National Stadium. ![]() After those, he only has a few tens of thousands of yen left to live on for a month. Kanazawa pays for his accommodations and cellphone bills. Of these, 90 percent were on social welfare. Typical rates for a single occupancy room in the Sanya district in Taito Ward, like Kanazawa’s, run between 2,000 yen ($18) and 3,000 yen.Īccording to a survey conducted by the metropolitan government in fiscal 2018, approximately 3,800 people lived in Sanya. He once slept in front of the Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station, a landmark in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. But after he suffered a herniated disc and injured his legs and hips, it became difficult for him to find work. Kanazawa, originally from Ibaraki Prefecture, used to be employed as a demolition worker. Over the past two years, he has resided in a 3-tatami-mat size room at one of 140 or so flophouses packed in a corner of the metropolis. Kanazawa is on welfare and is living hand to mouth. The notification he has been waiting for is something much more meaningful to him-an offer of employment. “And they keep coming more and more,” Kanazawa said. “I feel nothing for them.” In his tiny room at a cheap lodging house in Tokyo’s Sanya district, the notifications as Japan's record-breaking medal rush continues are an irritation to the unemployed 53-year-old man. Yoshio Kanazawa doesn't feel excited or proud when he hears the constant beeping of his mobile phone signaling that another Japanese athlete has won an Olympic medal.
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