Sixth Lecture on Olympic-Paralympic Games, ‘Politics, Diplomacy and the Olympics’, held at TUFS

January 29, 2018

On Wednesday the 17th of January, as part of the Tokyo 2020 Support Education Program, the sixth lecture of the ‘Thinking about the Olympic and Paralympic Games’ lecture series, ‘Politics, Diplomacy and the Olympics’, was held at TUFS.

This lecture was taught by Mr. Toshio Mochizuki (former Ambassador of the Embassy of Japan in Greece/JOA director/trustee of the Japanese Paralympic Committee) of the Japan Olympic Academy (JOA), and TUFS lecturer Nobuo Haruna (Institute of Japan Studies, international politics, Japanese history of diplomacy) acted as commentator.
Mr. Mochizuki drew on examples from past Olympic Games to explain the interaction between sports and politics, and also spoke on the diplomacy behind the 2020 games while mixing in his own experiences.
Professor Haruna expressed his opinion on the host country selection process, and discussed this with Mr. Mochizuki. Following this, participants asked questions about the relation between the Olympics and politics in a lively question-and-answer session.
Over the last academic year, in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Games, TUFS has held six lectures as part of a lecture series titled ‘Thinking about the Olympic and Paralympic Games’. Volunteer recruitment for the games will begin from summer 2018. TUFS is planning to hold more projects related to the Tokyo 2020 Games over the next academic year.