Interview: Motoko Rich, New York Times Tokyo Bureau Chief on the 2020/21 Tokyo Paralympics

In this episode, Amira Rose Davis talks with Motoko Rich, New York Times Tokyo Bureau Chief, about reporting on the 2020/21 Tokyo Paralympics. They discuss Japan being the first and only nation to host the Paralympics twice, the impacts of Covid-19 on the games as well as on the country and what disability activists in Japan want from these games.

This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network.

Transcript

Amira: So, I now have a setting on my phone that tells me what time it is in Tokyo, because it has been the most useful thing this summer, because time has confounded me. But it was really helpful this week because I called up Motoko Rich, who's the New York Times Tokyo bureau chief, and she's reporting on the ground. She's been covering the Olympics and Paralympic Games, and I wanted to talk to her after the opening ceremonies, and I was trying to figure out when that would be. So now I know at the time that I recorded it, it was that morning, and it was still at night for me on that same day. But for her, it was already the next morning because Tokyo is 13/14 hours ahead of us.

So, I chatted with Motoko the morning after she went to the Paralympic opening ceremonies, and we chatted of course about the para games and also lingering ongoing COVID concerns, Japan's imperial and long history of Paralympics support, and a few other things that we had on our minds. So, it's here, the Paralympics have started. And Motoko, you were the opening ceremonies, you were covering the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic games, and I know you went to the opening of the Olympics as well. What were your takeaways from the opening of the para games? 

Motoko: So, I mean, I think this is a very small sampling of friends and family and other journalists who are watching with me. But I think that just as an actual ceremony, the Paralympic ceremony was more vibrant, creative. There was a lot of vital energy in the performances. A lot of people with disabilities who were very talented artists, musicians, dancers participated. So that part of it was actually quite vibrant. I think there was a little bit of a somber mood in the kind of creative design of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, and so it was actually just sort of fun to watch in that respect. There's still that wistfulness and that bittersweet feeling that I certainly had at the Olympics, as well as the Paralympics, that watching over the sea of empty stands, and that when the athletes are doing the march of the nations, they're waving to cameras but not spectators. There aren't the huge cheers.

There were a couple of really poignant moments in the Paralympic march because the lead in delegation was the refugee team, and one of the flag bearers, Abbas Karimi, is Afghan. He's a refugee from Afghanistan. He left many years ago, but of course because of the current chaos, the Paralympic team from Afghanistan was unable to fly in to Tokyo because they couldn't get safe flights out of Kabul. So, you know, he's not only representing the refugee team leading in the entire parade of athletes, but he's the only Afghan athlete at the games by default. And then there was also the fact that the New Zealand team, which has sent 32 para athletes, decided not to march in the parade because of COVID fears. And that's really the theme of course of this whole entire both the Olympics and the Paralympics, right? That Tokyo, the IOC and the IPC decided to go ahead in the face of a pandemic. And things actually got worse in terms of the COVID situation in Tokyo and all over Japan.

You know, just 90 minutes before the opening ceremonies began, I got the daily update of number of new cases and particularly severe cases, you know, people who require ventilators or other intensive care. And that was at a record high in Japan on the same day that the Paralympic games opened. So there's definitely a lot of concern about that. In terms of the mood in Japan that was interesting, we canvassed some people outside of the stadium and sad to say there were far fewer people kind of vying to get pictures with the rings or the Paralympic symbol than had been there for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. That may have been because it was a weekday instead of a Friday night, but it might also be an indicator of people's concerns about COVID and also sadly the lowered interest for the Paralympics as opposed to the Olympics. But one person said, you know, I'm really concerned about COVID, but it wouldn't have been fair to hold the Olympics and cancel the Paralympics.

Amira: Right. And we were talking about this point on the episode this week, when we were talking about how all too often the Paralympic games are treated in a kind of stepchild, second class way. And one of the things we were talking about, including with Paralympians and disability activists, is the timing of it, right? Is it relegating it to an afterthought because it's after the Olympics? But then also reading in COVID, the Olympics demonstrably made COVID worse in the area. And then thinking about the fact that everybody's then coming into it again was really, I think, disturbing. I remember for the opening of the Olympic games on the television broadcast, because there wasn't the buffer of people in seats, we could hear the protesters outside. And the thing that was on my mind that you reported on this past week is that despite this kind of rising and continued concerns, they totally still said “no spectators” – except they allowed school groups, children? Is that still the case?

Motoko: Yeah. So, they weren't at the opening ceremonies. There are a number of events which are opening to school groups, and the way the organizers have said it, sort of what really appears as an attempt to pass the buck a little bit is that we have this program that was in place largely because we wanted to use the opportunity to educate schoolchildren, you know, “the future leaders of tomorrow,” about the importance of diversity and inclusion, which is a very laudable goal. But obviously the circumstances have changed dramatically because of COVID. So it seems like out of one side of their mouth, they're talking about how we're in the middle of a state of emergency, and they decided between the Olympics and Paralympics to bar domestic spectators to the Paralympic events. And yet they're going to allow the student group program to go ahead, and that's sort of the pass the buck moment, was when they said, well, it's really up to the local municipalities or the local principals or school boards and the parents can decide whether they want to send their kids.

As of yesterday, I think out of the 23 wards in the greater Tokyo area, 18 wards have said we're not going to send our kids. And this has been, certainly in the local media, has been a big, big issue, which is, you know, it just doesn't make logical sense. How can you say that you need to bar spectators because of the coronavirus situation, and yet you're going to admit kids – who, by the way, are ineligible for vaccinations! And then have them go to these together, and no matter how many precautions you take, there's always a raising of risk when you gather people together and then they go home and they're unvaccinated and they might be going home to families where adults are not vaccinated because the rollout has still not gotten as far as we would like it in Japan. It just seems the media has, I think rightly, been kind of asking these questions. Just on the face of it, it seems illogical, but it seems like having had the buck passed to them, a lot of local municipalities, parents, and school districts are making the decision on their own.

So we'll sort of see as the events roll out how many kids do end up going to the events. I mean, there were a few school groups that went to events during the Olympics. Soccer at Kashima stadium was open to kids and that was because there were a few events that took place in prefectures that were not then under a state of emergency, but all of the prefectures that are hosting events for the Paralympics are under state of emergency. So it just seems like the terms of the games have changed and that they haven't adapted to that.

Amira: Right. We talk a lot about the rhetoric of “inspiration” in a way that many Paralympians have talked about, of like, who is the intended audience for that inspiration? And where their inspiration is found and lies is usually kind of different than what is in commercials or being framed in news reports or stories. And one of the things that caught my eye is the way that it was like, oh, “this is a moment for these children to see people with disabilities.” And I was wondering how the rhetoric and kind of using that as a shield for this decision matched up with what you were hearing on the ground there in terms of either from disability activists or just a general awareness of where things stand in terms of resources for people with disabilities in Japan, and the response to that kind of line of argument?

Motoko: So, I mean, I think it's really complicated because I think that the rhetoric, as you say, is very overwhelming. And even just as a casual listener, I felt, god, you know, this is a lot of pressure on these athletes! When Andrew Parsons, the president of the International Paralympic Committee, came up to give his speech, I mean, it was filled with things like “You are here to save the world, to change the world!” And you know, these athletes have worked really hard to get to where they are. They don't need to add onto it this extra burden of having to literally change the world! And I thought it was interesting that as a creative decision, that immediately after he spoke they broadcast the #WeThe15 video that you may have seen on the screen, which, the theme is exactly kind of the opposite of that. Like, hey, we just want to live our lives. We're just like you, we're people, and treat us as people. And in terms of the Paralympics, treat us as athletes rather than people with disabilities being heroic and supermen. I think I get the sense that a lot of people are a little bit tired of that rhetoric in the disability community.

That being said, talking to disability activists in Japan, they just know that the Paralympics could have been and may still be an opportunity to draw attention to people with disabilities and to open people's eyes. Whether we like it or not, we don't live in a totally inclusive society, and there are a lot of people who, because we don't live in an inclusive society, have an opportunity to interact with people who have disabilities and to see them achieving. And so I think the activists recognize that this is an opportunity that they don't want to lose, and that through no fault of anyone there is the coronavirus pandemic, which is limiting the ability of that message to be passed along. But I don't think anyone wants to put actual children at risk to pass that message on! I think they believe that, you know, watch it on TV. Like, let's really encourage everybody sit in your classroom and have an hour of Paralympic viewing. That would be just as good at this point, given the circumstances, as actually showing up and putting your lives at risk. Maybe that's a little too dramatic, but certainly endangering children's health and potentially the health of their families and their community to have this kind of rhetorical moment.

In terms of the sort of the broader impact of the Paralympics, on facilities and accessibility and the environment for the disabled in Japan, there are some things that have been improved. I believe Seiko Hashimoto or someone said at the penultimate press conference before the opening ceremony that 95% of train stations in Tokyo are either already accessible in that they have elevators and ramps or are on their way to being so. But then someone countered, well, yeah, but head outside of Tokyo and it’s quite different. It's not yet the case. And as anyone say who's blind or needs a wheelchair to get around can tell you, that just putting an elevator in a building or a train station is not sufficient. There's so much more to being accessible. But you'd rather they have that step than not. I think the other thing that's a big challenge for Japan is that they don't yet have a full sort of implementation of inclusive education or inclusive workplaces. And I think that's something that disability activists are really looking for.

And I think the point that you make about this sort of…It’s almost a catch-22 in a way, that by having the Paralympics straight after the Olympics, it becomes this stepchild. But on the other hand, I've been sort of reading my history about how the Paralympic movement got started, and that it was really important in the 1964 Olympics that were held in Tokyo for the original organizers of the Stoke Mandeville games, which are the precursor to the Paralympics, that they be combined with the Olympics. That if they didn’t have this opportunity to be combined with the Olympics, they wouldn't get the same kind of attention. So, it’s more complicated than, you know, binary, I think. 

Amira: Yeah, absolutely. One of the things we were talking about…And our co-host Brenda's sister, who's a disability activist, had called in to talk about too, is that placement.

And we talked about what it would look like to even run them concurrently. Lindsay was talking about when we send a media team, having it two weeks later is so hard for coverage because who's sending a team back to Tokyo in a pandemic to do this?

Motoko: Right. That’s what we're literally going through. We had a lot of people here for the Olympics, but we don't have as big of a team here for the Paralympics. So, you know, logistically it's difficult to ask people to give up five weeks of their life – especially during a pandemic, when you have to kind of have to go quarantine and all of that. And I did kind of wonder…I mean, I'm sure it would be a logistical nightmare, but as I'm watching all of this, I mean, the nature of the Olympics is it's a bunch of different sports happening concurrently anyway. So it does seem a little bit artificial to divide these two events. Why not have them run all at the same time? I mean, I'm not an event organizer, so maybe what I'm asking is actually a logistical impossibility, but there is something to the fact that, you know, if you attend the Olympics, you're never going to see all the Olympic events anyway. You can't get to all of them concurrently. So, in terms of coverage, inclusivity, it seems like it would make sense to combine them.

Amira: And I'm glad you mentioned the 1964 para games. Japan has played a huge role in the Paralympic movement, and a huge role in…This is the second Paralympic games happening in Tokyo.

Motoko: And the only time the Paralympics have twice happened in the country.

Amira: Right. And I think that when we’re thinking about the global kind of Paralympic, para games movement, it's really important, I think, to center Japan in that growth. Is there a kind of palpable feeling from the lay public in understanding of the role that Japan's played, or is that a history that is still kind of being uncovered or reported on in terms of the connections between ’64 and today, or even the role that Japan has played globally in this effort?

Motoko: I think it would be hard for me to generalize, but my sense of it is that you kind of had to have been a little bit of an Olympics geek to have made the connection, even, you know, just between what happened in ’64 on any number of fronts to connect to now, because you know, the people who were alive then are quite old now, like, there's a whole generation of people who weren't even alive then. And then, you know, certainly it was something that was talked about in the run-up to the games, but the extent to which people pay attention to that kind of thing until it's right in their face, it's hard to tell. But one connection that I made instantly, you know, was just sort of embodied in the fact that the emperor is the person who officially opens the games. And the current emperor, Naruhito, is the son of the two people who did a lot to bring the Paralympic movement to Japan.

His parents, the emperor emeritus Akihito empress emerita Michiko-sama, they were both crown prince and princess in 1964. And they took on the Paralympics as one of their causes, and at the time, you know, it was not that long after the war when you think about it, you know, less than 20 years after the end of the war. Tey had a huge social interest. She was the first quote-unquote “commoner” to marry into the imperial family in over 200 years. She was quite loved by the public and was very glamorous. So the fact that the two of them were not only embracing and promoting the Paralympics movement, but then thereafter they've visited a lot of…And unfortunately the sort of policy of Japan was to kind of warehouse people with disabilities in institutions, but they made it a big point of visiting a lot of these places, media in tow, and that she would get down on her knees to talk to the people who were in wheelchairs or bedridden. And again, sort of as a symbolic thing, for in Japanese culture the way that the imperial family has recorded, that was very symbolically important.

And so the fact that that family has been so supportive of the movement is very kind of part of, I think, why the Paralympic movement has been in some ways centered in Japan, and then to have him there again at the game symbolically. But again, you'd have to kind of make those three steps. You’d have to know that history, [laughs] because one of the Twitter memes that was going around was, you know, the emperor spoke for 30 seconds and then the president of the Tokyo games spoke for six minutes, and then president of the IPC spoke for whatever more minutes. You'd have to know that history to make the connection, but it is there.

Amira: Thank you so much for sharing that history, because that is fascinating. You know, those speaking times say so much about power and control and the way the IOC and IPC work.

Motoko: Right. And by the way, Thomas Bach spoke a lot more than any of them! [laughter]

Amira: He did! But I think that when we talk about the Olympics, and oftentimes, you know, I myself am in this position a lot. We talk about the devastation that it usually brings to host cities and things like that. One of the things I appreciate about the nuance is these stories, right? It's this history, it's the other kind of things that we don’t see in some of these larger conversations, and I really appreciate that history. So now that the ceremonies have started, is there a sense for yourself, for people around you, are you really excited for certain events? 

Motoko: I am! I am.

Amira: Is there athletes you're looking at?

Motoko: Yeah. I mean, I'm excited about Abbas Karimi, the Afghan athlete who was one of the flag bearers for the refugee team. He's a swimmer. I think I'm going to go get my eye opening by going and watching some wheelchair rugby. My understanding is that the Japanese team is actually a big medal contender. So I'm going to go.

Amira: Yes! And can I tell you, that's my favorite. We did a preview episode. That's my favorite. I said when we talked about it, it's because originally it was called “murder ball.”

Motoko: Yes, yes! [laughs]

Amira: And it's so intense! So you'll have to tell me. I can't imagine it in person, that it just…It seems just like sonically in person to be overwhelming and like the sounds of collision. I love it. I'm very excited for your experience. [laughs]

Motoko: Yeah. I definitely wanna go to see that. And then I also want to see some wheelchair basketball. That's apparently a really tough event to get permission to get in. So I'm hoping I'll get to see some of that. I ended up learning a lot about table tennis during the Olympics that I had never watched it live or, you know, thought of it even as a professional sport, and just sort of had this vague notion of ping pong diplomacy. And then kind of watched a lot of it and learned a lot of it. There's this great commentator – he’s American, actually – Adam Bobrow, who does some online commentary and YouTube videos. He's like a table tennis obsessive, and he's still here for the Paralympics too. So I'm going to chat with him. And of course, obviously table tennis, you know, just watching the different ways that table tennis can be played…I mean, one of the things that’s super fascinating for me that because I have never covered a Paralympics before is just that the sort of fine slicing and dicing of all the different categories.

So it's not just, you know, you can't just say that someone swims the butterfly. It's sort of there are all these different categories, depending on their disability. Swimming is really interesting, because I think it's one of the most democratizing sports that almost anyone with any disability can participate. Whereas, you know, obviously wheelchair rugby by definition is someone who's in a wheelchair and not with other kinds of disabilities per se. So I think that it will be just so fascinating to see the different ways in which people with different abilities are playing the same sport, but in kind of different ways. So I'm just really looking forward to seeing some of that. 

Amira: That's really exciting. And you mentioned Japan’s strength in wheelchair rugby. Is there another kind of sense of like the go-to events for the Japanese delegation to really show out in?

Motoko: So, I am not totally up to speed on it. I'm just sort of basing it on watching morning television shows. And I think there's a tennis player that everybody's very excited about who already medaled in some previous Paralympics. I mean, the other thing that's been very interesting to me is that how many people who've been to four or five games there are participating. I think both the flag bearers for Japan are returnees, and one of the flag bearers, she had gone to three Paralympics in the long jump, and then she had a child, and I guess for some reason after pregnancy she decided she wanted to switch to different sports. So she's now here for triathlon. So I think that is also really interesting, the kind of flexibility. And actually, there is another historical note from ’64, is that because it was only the second Paralympics to run alongside the Olympics and because it was such a nascent movement and frankly because the disability community in Japan was not treated very well, that recruiting athletes to compete for Japan was an issue. And so not a number of athletes had to participate in a whole bunch of events! And so I think that that has changed where, you know, now in the modern era, there’s like over 4,000 athletes here and they can specialize. But back in ’64, apparently, there were athletes who had to swim, and athletics, and dah, dah, dah. 

Amira: And in ’64, I'm wondering in Japan maybe…I don't know if you know this, but in the United States, it's always been interesting, the ties of the para games to the military and veterans, and that has remained – partially because the United States keeps fighting wars.

Motoko: Yes. Yes.

Amira: Like, endlessly. And I'm wondering in ’64, today, if there was a kind of similar recruitment of veterans in Japan into the…? Because it seems to me like when I see it today, it's a very American thing. There's a lot of injured veterans. 

Motoko: Yeah. That’s a really good question that I don't know the answer to. I think it would have been more complicated for Japan because one of the historical notes as I've been doing some research about this that I learned is that after the war, because Japan was occupied by United States, and that the occupying forces were very concerned about any sense of remilitarization of Japan. And so veterans were not accorded status in Japanese society back then in the same way that they would have been for sure after World War II, greatest generation and all of that. And even now…And of course the flag, one of the flag bearers for the United States, Melissa Stockwell, is a purple heart and bronze star awardee from the Iraq war. So, you know, it's very present in the American delegation. But I don't know the history for ’64, but it's certainly not there now because Japan has not fought any wars in 75 years.

Amira: Right. That felt like a flex too. [laughter] But no, I mean, I think this is great. I'm really so thankful for your perspective on the ground. I think that it's been a weird Olympic cycle and Paralympic cycle because in many ways technology has made the gap between on the ground and at home feel almost inexistent because of streaming and you're right there with camera angles. But then at the same time it's like these stories that then get missed and this kind of on the ground experience is so radically different from how it usually is. So I really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you about your observations and what you're seeing. As we move into, you know, now I think we can finally start seeing the finish line of the Paralympic games as well. I mean, they just started, but we're at least two weeks from the summer of games and things that have been in Tokyo. Is there a sense of what happens next? I know there's some facilities, the Olympic village has been, you know…They say this every Olympic cycle, but I think they have a more robust plan, hopefully, this year to convert that into equitable housing. You have all of these stadiums and facilities. Is there a sense, do you already hear murmurings of what happens next? 

Motoko: I don't know if there is that much murmuring about it yet. To the extent that they built, you know, the main kind of centerpiece of the new building was obviously the Olympic village, the aquatic center, and the stadium. And so I don't actually know what the post Olympic plan is for the stadium. It's a really nice stadium and it's right in the middle of Tokyo, so I hope they have a good plan. It happens to be right next door to the rugby stadium. So I'm curious. I guess the natural use for it would be soccer. But it's obviously a great athletics field, but it's not as if you get a lot of athletics, I mean, in terms of pro applications. It would probably be soccer, I imagine. The aquatics center, you know, it's beautiful. [laughs] So I hope they find a use for it. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm a little bit ignorant on this. I need to do a bit of research to find out.

Amira: No, it's fine. I think that, yeah, this is the question though. You see these beautiful facilities…Like, I can't stop thinking about Pyeongchang, like when they did the winter games there, and one of the ski slopes that they bulldozed a bunch of trees to make was pretty, aesthetically, but it turned out to be a course that the athletes didn't like very much, and that they found slightly, like, not as challenging. And so they didn't play to schedule any further world events there. But yeah, it was too difficult for the lay person to ski on, and so now you just kind of have this bulldozed ski slope. And so I think that sometimes when you look at what gets built for the Olympics…And we saw this of course in Rio, with both the Olympics and the World Cup happening so close together, where you have a stadium in Manaus that nobody can access, that is now just right there, you know? And so part of it is being fairly ignorant in the kind of topology of Tokyo pre-Olympics. I'm wondering, how much feels changed?

Motoko: Yeah. I think that the area that was most dramatically changed was on the water and that the plan is to convert…Like, I think they've already pre-sold a lot of condos in the Olympic village and it was actually kind of one of the problems of the postponement, right?

Is that they had to redo all these contracts with people who were planning to move in and now their move-in date is pushed out for a year. So that was kind of a big problem for them. And then just as it happens, right close to where the Times has its bureau, we are across from the old fish market that had already been closed, separate and apart from the Olympics, but then they kind of bulldozed over the part of the fish market was the wholesale market and turned it into like a bus terminal that has been used for the Olympics.

You know, it's kind of this ugly concrete parking lot. So, I assume they're going to continue to use it as a parking lot, but for what? I don't know if it'll be a bus terminal for public buses or what that plan will be.

And so that's certainly a topology that has changed. The area where like the aquatic center is, it's a very strange area. To get there, it's kind of cumbersome by public transit, and you get off the train and you have to walk. I mean, it's only cumbersome for people who need to get to the aquatic center, but it's a long walk from there. But all around it, it doesn't have the city feel at all. It's just apartment building after apartment building after apartment building, or office building, or large kind of large warehouses for companies which were there prior to the Olympics. So, I don't think it's quite kind of the devastating change or overhaul or tearing down of your beautiful areas that it was for even the previous Olympics in Tokyo or in other places – not to say that that hasn't happened, but I don't think it's quite, you know, what you were describing happening in Brazil and this sort of horrible white elephant that will never be able to be used.

It seems like it would have to be a colossal intentional ignoring of this beautiful stadium, right in central Tokyo. As it happens, I went out to the area where the surfing took place and they're taking down temporary things. They had built lots of tents and temporary bleachers and temporary trailers for the press. So they're clearing all of that out now, but then it's just going to be a beach, and a pretty good one at that. And we saw lots of locals, you know, tearing the place up. We hope that that's the legacy, right? Of like the new sports in either Olympics or Paralympics are things that people will really embrace after the games are gone. 

Amira: Right. And we have a few new sports at the Paralympics this year that are exciting additions as well. So what's first on your agenda for the para games. Are you going to something today? 

Motoko: I probably won't go today, but yeah, I definitely want to go see some wheelchair rugby this week, and swimming.

Amira: Swimming. Awesome. Well, Motoko, thank you so much for giving us that history and a view from Japan and what's happening on the ground, and we wish you a very safe and enjoyable Paralympics.

Motoko: Thank you!

Amira: And thank you of course for coming on Burn It All Down.

Motoko: It was my pleasure. Thanks so much for inviting me.