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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow

Shinano Mainichi

"Prefectural Olympic leadership" bothering NAOC

Lighting installation at the Ski Jump venue

At the end of March 1997, in the Governor's Office on the third floor of the Prefectural Office, Nagano Governor Goro Yoshimura took up the subject with NAOC executives.

Lighting facilities are being requested by the International Ski Federation (FIS) for the Ski Jump venue at Happoh in Hakuba Village, Kitaazumi-gun. NAOC, which had up to the day of the meeting refused the request, made a quick turn toward assent.

A sign post in front of the Nagano Prefectural Offices displays the number of days remaining until the Games. At times the Nagano Olympics have forced us to look at the realities of "government leadership."

The FIS first announced its request for lighting facilities in March 1996 so that evening competitions would be possible. At the World Cup event held there in late January, the normal hill was closed due to inclement weather, and the large hill competition started at noon, two and a half hours late. The Ski Association of Japan (SAJ) also supported demands for lighting facilities, saying, "In February the latest we can wait to shut down the facility is 3:30pm. There is a whole lot more room to work with if we can hold events at night."

Both Governor Yoshimura and NAOC took positions of refusal toward the requests.

NAOC Director General Makoto Kobayashi said in a press conference held on January 29, "The ski jump itself is most impressive when viewed during the daytime. There is no way NAOC can pay for such facilities."

Governor Yoshimura, in a press conference on February 17 reiterated the position, saying, "Expense for such facilities would reach approximately 800 million yen. We would like the sport federations to understand that NAOC will not be installing lighting facilities."

At that press conference, Governor Yoshimura made one inappropriate remark. In response to a question regarding SAJ financial support of the project, he said, "There's now way they'd pay for it, they're much too tightfisted." This remark ended up causing quite a stir. He retracted his statement at a second press conference held one and a half hours later, explaining, "I was rude to make such an injurious remark and would therefore like to withdraw it."

On March 11, after an IOC Coordination Committee meeting held in Nagano City, NAOC Director General Kobayashi made the following statement at a press conference. "Maybe our stance on the lighting issue was mistaken. We would like to hear SAJ recommendations on lighting measures that can be taken during twilight." It was plainly an about face from their previous position.

The twilight-only lighting issue was easier to deal with. It looked as if expenditures would fall to only 100 million yen, far shorter than estimates for nighttime lighting.

Governor Yoshimura, who is also a NAOC vice-president, says, "We listened to the SAJ's lighting requests from SAJ President Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, and we also made a few suggestions of our own." On the issue of NAOC's and the Prefecture's about face, he emphasized, "Because estimates suggested that it could be done cheaply, NAOC and the Prefecture decided to pull together and accept the project."

Those related to the issue say that Governor Yoshimura, after his "tightfisted" comment, quickly contacted SAJ President Tsutsumi. It is rumored that the Governor first accepted the requests of the SAJ on that occasion.

Internal sources say that NAOC would like to stop the Prefecture from taking a lead, and that they are dissatisfied with the development of many issues. There was apparently a difference of opinion between NAOC and the Prefecture on the necessity of lighting. If events, which are scheduled to begin at 9:30am during the Olympics, go on into the evening, it would prove difficult to deal with changing train schedules on JR's Oito Line, causing much inconvenience to spectators. Objections at NAOC can still be heard saying, "Competition even in twilight is simply impossible. There is no way one could even think of using the lighting (with all of the other problems it would bring)."

There is inevitably an historical element to Olympic involvement by the Nagano Prefectural Government.

Nagano Olympic bid activities were begun 12 years ago in March 1985. In response to a Prefectural Assembly Representative's question, Governor Yoshimura stated, "In order to avoid contention between cities within the Prefecture, it is important for the Prefecture and its assembly to be involved as we make our bid." This statement shows that the Prefecture took an active role in planning for the Games.

Two times in the past cities within the Prefecture chosen to be sites were at odds when Nagano made bids to host the Games. Unable to unify support, they were defeated in the Japan national bid by other areas within the country. Sporting groups and financial groups, hoping the third time would be the charm, established the Bid Preparation Committee, placed Governor Yoshimura at the top of the organization while refining their bid strategy. They expected to be able to get rid of regional confrontation by using Prefectural leadership. In June 1991 Nagano won its Olympic bid. In November of the same year NAOC began functioning in its capacity as the main administration.

One bid organizer reflects, "During the bid process we decided to rely on the Prefectural government to coordinate all activities. We expected that if the bid was won, support from the public would be forthcoming. However the public did not come forth quite as much as we had hoped. It was an unfortunate miscalculation."

NAOC employees in inside conversations have been heard using expressions like "Sounds like a 'Habashita' way of thinking" (referring to the area of town the Prefectural offices are in) and "It's what the ten-floor building wants" when speaking of the Prefecture and Governor Yoshimura.

NAOC is the organization responsible for Olympic preparations and administration. On one hand the Prefectural and local government can be considered as something steady and reliable. On the other hand, it is difficult to close the gap between government and the citizen's sense of direction. We live in a time in which Japanese society has been hauled around by a bureaucratic system, causing inordinate amounts of "institutional exhaustion." If we rely only on government dependence, there will be limited assets left to residents after the Games. This is what the preparational and administrative themes ought to be about.

A brief history of Nagano's Olympic bids Nagano's first Olympic bid in 1940 consisted of the areas of Shiga Heights, Suga-daira, Norikuradake and Kirigamine as venue sites. Nagano's second attempt was in 1972, with Hakuba, Karuizawa, and Yamanouchi as host sites. That bid was lost to Sapporo. It was for the third bid in 1985 which the Nagano Bid Preparation Committee was established. In the 1988 National bid competition Nagano beat Morioka, Yamagata, and Asahikawa, finally being chosen by the IOC at Birmingham, England in 1991 as the site of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. SAJ President Yoshiaki Tsutsumi worked as the JOC (Japan Olympic Committee) Chairman from August 1989 to April 1990 and played an important role in Nagano's successful Olympic bid.

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Copyright 1999 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun