Politics is never far from international sport. There will be immense focus on and responsibility for Japan over the next ten months.
On Nov. 2, the final of the Rugby World Cup will be played out in Yokohama. In July 2020, Tokyo will host the Olympic Games. It is not just national reputation for competence and hospitality at stake.
In 2008, China used the Olympic Games to showcase its arrival as a successful authoritarian nation to the world. Before then, Japan stood as the regional exemplar of a modern and successful nation. Since 2008, the emerging contest in Asia about the future of democracy and its suitability for a rapidly growing but still largely poor region has intensified.