During the week following the announcement in Buenos Aires that Tokyo would host the 2020 Olympic Games, the Japanese media was saturated with news of the capital's celebratory reaction. NHK, which will broadcast the Games, was particularly enthusiastic, leading every news report with a long Olympic-related item regardless of more pressing stories, such as the situations in Syria or Fukushima.
But mixed in with these upbeat dispatches was low grumbling from people who were never really behind the Olympic push, and as the week ended the grumbling became louder and more coherent to the point that anti-Olympic sentiments were almost as prominent as the self-congratulatory ones. Prior to the International Olympic Committee vote the media formed a united front of positivity to ensure that the Tokyo bid committee's efforts wouldn't be undermined by the perception that the city might not be completely behind the Games, since it is believed that is was the lack of local support that doomed Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics. But there are a number of prominent media figures who did not and still do not support the Tokyo Games, and now that the hosting job has been secured they are free to express their views.
Several, in fact, appeared live on TBS's "Sunday Morning" talk show on Sept. 8, less than an hour after the happy news was revealed. While the guests admitted they were glad that Tokyo was selected, they did such a thorough job of qualifying their feelings that one Twitter user commented the program "was like a wake." World affairs expert Jitsuro Terashima said he had "complicated feelings" about the announcement but was happy since the Olympics might force Japan to address "international diplomacy" more earnestly. Critic Eiko Oya also welcomed the news, though she said she originally thought Istanbul should have been chosen as the host city "in order to build a bridge between the East and the West."