Friday Nov 15, 2024
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Tuesday, 18 February 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
TOKYO (Reuters): ‘United by Emotion’ was revealed as the motto for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics yesterday as organisers look to hammer home the message of diversity and inclusion.
Tennis player Naomi Osaka, who was born in Japan to a Haitian father and Japanese mother but raised in the US, narrated the motto’s promotional video.
“We are each different, and all so much the same,” Osaka says in the video, which showed her entering the newly-built National Stadium surrounded by a diverse group of supporters.
“And in these moments we experience and these emotions we share, we change what we can imagine together.”
Japan, which has long prided itself on being homogeneous, is becoming more ethnically diverse and Osaka, currently 10th in the world rankings, is often held up as the face of these changing times.
“Diverse groups of people, by sharing their emotions, will become one,” Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said during the announcement.
“That is the kind of Games we want the Tokyo 2020 Games to be.”
The motto will be displayed on the iconic Tokyo Skytree, the Japanese capital’s tallest landmark, from Monday until 25 March, the day before the torch relay begins.
Some 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries will gather in Tokyo for the Olympics, which run from 24 July to 9 August.
