The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were supposed to showcase Japan’s resilience in the face of major setbacks and be a crowning event at the end of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s term in office, but the COVID-19 pandemic and a yearlong delay have threatened this narrative. Mireya Solís, director of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at Brookings, joins David Dollar to discuss the political and economic background of these Olympic Games. Solís explains why it was important for Japan to tell a story of renewal after the Triple Disaster of 2011 and a period of economic stagnation. She also describes what the Olympics mean for current Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and for Japan’s relations with other countries in the region.
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