With less than a month to go to the Olympic Games, the promotional wagon has swung into full gear as everyone from national public broadcasters to soccer teams have begun to promote their coverage of the Olympics, giving us a glimpse of how the world sees Japan in 2021.
The BBC’s trailer depicts a digitally re-created neon-infused Japan that takes the viewer from street stalls through the inner workings of a gachapon machine and up and over a skyline that is hard to recognize as Tokyo’s.
Set to music by anime composer Kenji Kawai ("Ghost in the Shell," "Avalon" and "Hyakkin"), and featuring the vocals of pop avatar Hatsune Miku, the trailer has been praised for its creativity in some quarters but derided on Twitter for its “Let’s Go There” message at a time when Tokyo remains in a quasi-state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Others have accused it of being “techno-orientalist” and a “stereotype bingo,” that depicts an unrealistic version of Japan that to some looks more akin to Hong Kong or Shanghai than Tokyo.