'More medals, fewer protests in Tokyo'

 "The more medals Japan will win in the competitions, the more people will end up accepting the Olympics. Betting on the successes of Japanese athletes by the authorities may be the right idea": is the opinion of the Italian ambassador in Tokyo. Giorgio Starace, interviewed by ANSA in the premises of Casa Italia. "Deciphering what the Japanese have in mind is difficult - continues the ambassador - but these are more than ever media Olympics and the more Japan's successes, the more consensus will increase. Unfortunately there is an unknown factor, represented by infections, which today they record a new record, over 2,800 in one day in Tokyo alone. This confirms the inevitability of the increase in the contagion curve with this great event ".

For the Italian representative in Japan, the Japanese government is playing the card of "giving great importance to medals and at the same time trying to contain the epidemic as much as possible". It is "a countdown to 8 August", the day of the conclusion of the Games, trying to "reach the end with a pressure on the hospitals that is not too strong". "The victories in the Olympics are certainly a harbinger of enthusiasm - continues Starace - the Japanese are very happy to be Japanese. In the election campaign, for the elections that will take place between September and October, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who has made the bet to confirm the Olympics instead of focusing on postponement, will try to leverage the theme of national prestige.the only country that would have been able to hold the Olympics in these circumstances, we are an example in the world, this is where the rebirth against Covid starts, and the world will admire us ".

"The Olympics - says the ambassador - were a great bet that Japan made, even if in times when this pandemic could not even have been imagined. It made it because it was a bet perfectly consistent with what happened in geopolitics. in recent years: also through the Olympics, Tokyo has tried to regain a great centrality that it had lost especially in the period of the great depression, after the end of the 1990s bubble ". Today, the ambassador testifies, the average Japanese is in front of the TV, everyone is talking about the medals, what the home athletes have won or what they hope they will win in the next few days: "from the point of view of interest, the Japanese they do not boycott at all and the Olympics ", assures Starace.The ratings seem very high, there is a very wide TV coverage ".