Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda plans to ask outspoken Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara to make a presentation in Lausanne, Switzerland, in June for the Japanese capital’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. ‘‘We need Governor Ishihara, who is also the bid committee chief, to make an appeal,’’ Takeda said Monday, referring to the occasion when the four finalist cities will be granted the opportunity to speak before International Olympic Committee members.

The IOC will name the host city of the 2016 Olympics from among Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro at its general assembly meeting in Copenhagen in October 2009. ‘‘I believe the governor knows he is the one. He is a charismatic person known even to the media overseas,’’ said Mitsuru Arakawa, a senior official of the 2016 Tokyo Olympics campaign.
Tokyo is bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games but Japan should look at basic Human Rights Issues and only then after international events!

Amnesty International argues that the Japanese justice system tends to place great reliance on confessions and it has been claimed that these may be obtained under duress. According to a 2005 Amnesty International report:

“Most have been sentenced to death on the basis of confessions extracted under duress. The potential for miscarriages of justice is built into the system: confessions are typically extracted while suspects are held in daiyo kangoku, or “substitute prisons”, for interrogation before they are charged. In practice these are police cells, where detainees can be held for up to 23 days after arrest, with no state-funded legal representation. They are typically interrogated for 12 hours a day: no lawyers can be present, no recordings are made, and they are put under constant pressure to confess. Once convicted, it is very difficult to obtain a re-trial and prisoners can remain under sentence of death for many years.”

Amnesty International also reports of allegations of abuse of suspects during these interrogations. There are reports of physical abuse, sleep deprivation and denial of food, water and use of a toilet. It also criticises the fact that inmates usually remain for years, sometimes decades, on death row, knowing that executions come with little warning and each day may potentially be their last. According to Amnesty International, the intense and prolonged stress means many inmates on death row have poor mental health, suffering from the so called Death row phenomenon. The failure to give advanced notice of executions has been stated by the United Nations Human Rights Committee to be incompatible with articles 2, 7, 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Link to this post if you are against Death Penalty

Japan’s football chief has vowed to bid for the World Cup finals in 2018 or 2022, despite Tokyo’s candidacy to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, press reports said Monday.

“We want to challenge it,” Football Association president Motoaki Inukai was quoted as saying on FIFA’s weekend decision to hold simultaneous bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Japan co-hosted the 2002 finals with neighbouring South Korea.

FIFA, the world’s football governing body, last year abolished a system under which the host nation of the four-yearly premier football event was rotated among six continents.

“That means everybody is welcome (to bid) and Japan is expected to do so,” Inukai said on the sidelines of the Club World Cup final in Yokohama, in which Manchester United beat Liga de Quito 1-0.

“If Tokyo hosts the Olympics, it will help upgrade stadiums and training centres,” Inukai added. Tokyo’s National Stadium, which hosted some Club World Cup matches, and other major venues in Japan would need upgrades for World Cup matches.

Inukai said his association would make a final decision on its World Cup bid after September next year when the International Olympic Committee picks the 2016 Olympic host among Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.

The 2018 and 2022 World Cup venues will be decided in December 2010.

Inukai earlier said that a World Cup bid would in no way hamper Tokyo’s hopes of a second Summer Olympics. It hosted the 1964 Games.

“The Olympics and the World Cup are totally different,” Inukai said last week. “Some people may say it will be too much (if Japan hosts both). But Japan has merits. Japan is safe and spectators are well-mannered.”

FIFA made the decision on the simultaneous bidding at a meeting here on Saturday.

It means that should a bidder for 2018 be unsuccessful then they would be able to enter the vote for 2022 to be held immediately afterwards, so long as the 2018 hosts are not from the same continent.

The bidding is open to everyone, although African and South American countries are not allowed to enter in 2018 as those continents will have held the World Cup in 2010 (South Africa) and 2014 (Brazil).

source: google.com

Japan should not host Olympics and no Soccer Worldcup

The competition pool for a Chicago Olympics would last about as long as a swimming world record does these days.

Chicago 2016 organizers unveiled several venue changes Friday that they say will benefit athletes and the community, and make their bid more attractive in the highly competitive international field. In addition to moving the aquatic center and making the competition pool a temporary facility, the sailing, canoe/kayaking, track cycling and BMX cycling venues all will be moved under Chicago’s retooled bid plan.

“We worked very closely with international sports federations and national governing bodies,” said Doug Arnot, Chicago 2016’s operations chief. “This plan is better for sport, better for the games and, perhaps most importantly, better for Chicago’s youth sports legacy. This plan remains very financially responsible.”

The changes will add about 5% to the budget, which remains at $4.7 billion, Chicago 2016 chairman Patrick Ryan said. That’s a bargain compared with other Summer Games; London estimates its overall costs for the 2012 Olympics will be about $16.5 billion, three times the original estimate.

Chicago is bidding against Tokyo; Madrid, Spain; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2016 Games, which would be the first Summer Olympics in the United States in 20 years. Chicago is touting a compact bid, with 90% of athletes within 15 minutes of their competition sites and most venues clustered along the scenic downtown lakefront.
Organizers have spent the last 18 months soliciting input on their bid plan, as well as looking to ensure the city is left with a usable legacy — instead of those white elephants so many Olympic cities find themselves stuck with.

A permanent pool, for example, would seat about 20,000. Many cities struggle to find a suitable use for a facility that size after the games, and wind up having to shrink it.

“We decided to start the other way,” Arnot said. “Start with the facility already shrunk, for the warm-up pool, and use the competition pool as the temporary (venue).”

The warm-up pool, a permanent venue, will be adjacent to the competition pool and the two will be separated by a deck, much like they were in Beijing. There also will be a separate diving well and a pool for water polo. All temporary pools will be moved to other Chicago parks after the games.

Temporary pools have been a success at other high-profile events, including the last two U.S. Olympic trials. Michael Phelps even set world records in the 200 and 400 individual medleys at this summer’s trials in Omaha

The aquatic center site also has changed. It now will be in Washington Park, near the Olympic Stadium, instead of in Douglas Park.

“This will bring Washington Park alive in the days between the opening ceremony and track,” Arnot said.

The move also allows room in Douglas Park for a velodrome that will host track and BMX cycling. The velodrome will be converted to a multi-use facility after the games. Northerly Island, a former airport with picturesque views of the Chicago skyline, will now host canoe/kayaking and sailing, as well as beach volleyball.

“We spent a great deal of time balancing input and insight from a great deal of sources, balancing what’s good for the Olympic movement and what’s good for our city,” Ryan said. “We feel our enhanced plan provides us with an even more compelling proposal, and strongly enhances our legacy.”

The International Olympic Committee will pick the host city next October at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ryan also said the current economic crisis has forced the bid committee to adjust its surplus estimate to $500 million, down from $725 million. The additional $225 million was expected to come from the sale of the Olympic village to a real estate developer, who would convert the village to mixed-use housing after the games.

Because the real estate market is so slow, Ryan said the committee isn’t comfortable predicting any profit.

“Do we really believe we won’t get anything? We hope and expect it will improve, but we don’t think it’s prudent or fiscally responsible to say, ‘In spite of the fact that things are as terrible as they are in real estate markets all around the world, that we believe optimistically that we’ll be able to do this,”‘ Ryan said.

That doesn’t mean Chicago taxpayers will be on the hook, though, Ryan stressed. The city has guaranteed up to $500 million if the Olympic Games’ operating budget lost money.

“We still have a cushion of a half a billion dollars,” Ryan said.

Ryan also said he doesn’t expect Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest on seamy corruption charges to affect Chicago’s bid. Blagojevich was accused Tuesday of putting President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat up for sale and shaking down the owners of the Chicago Tribune.

“It’s a sad day for Illinois, there’s no denying that,” Ryan said. “(But) the governor has not been involved in our bid, to speak of, at all. … We don’t believe that that will negatively impact the bid.”

source: usatoday.com