Olympics can still showcase Japan's success, despite the gloom

By Andrew Hammond

While there has been much gloom surrounding the Olympics so far, the world's biggest sporting event could yet have significant positive value for Japan, as the nation projects itself to global stakeholders as a respected international leader, technological innovator and cultural powerhouse.

To be sure, the risks remain real, including the fact that the event could still become an international "super-spreader" for the pandemic. However, if this situation can be avoided, there is an opportunity for the nation to fashion positive outcomes in a context where much of the pandemic-weary world is watching with the potential for a TV audience surpassing the 3.2 billion who tuned in for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The decision to host the Games was originally the brainchild of the nation's longest-serving prime minster, Shinzo Abe, who saw an opportunity to help rejuvenate a country struggling from two decades of economic stagnation. Back in September 2013, when Japan was awarded the Olympics, the nation was also recovering from the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami.

Abe's desire to host the Olympics also derived from positive sentiment from the 1964 Tokyo Games ― seen by some as the moment that Japan reemerged on the global stage after World War II. If the 1964 Olympics marked Japan's arrival as a burgeoning economic superpower, his own goal was that the 2020 Games be used to alter the narrative of the last two decades of Japan's declining place in the world.

With Japan now an international leader in areas like trade and climate policy, the goal is to make the nation more relevant at a time when its role in tackling the world's most significant challenges, including global warming and the pandemic, has never been greater. And add to this too the country's long-standing strengths in areas like technology, as witnessed by the specular, illuminated display of 1,800 drones during the opening ceremony.

Two major questions arise from these ambitions. Firstly, could a country's reputation be enhanced in the same way as corporations might be able to do? And, secondly, could doing so have a significant, sustainable, national economic impact?

On the first issue, competition for the attention of stakeholders like investors and tourists is intensifying, and a country's national reputation is therefore either a prized asset or a big liability.

Boosting country branding is therefore an ever-common ambition and a number of countries have successfully used the Olympics to positively differentiate themselves to the world, including Spain with the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and Australia with Sydney 2000.

Yet, the simple fact is that many nations fail to capitalize fully ― reputationally or economically ― on hosting the Olympics.

To maximize the prospects of Japan benefiting, reputationally, amid the pandemic, it therefore must pursue a concerted reputation and economic strategy that aligns all key national stakeholders ― across the public, private and civil society sectors ― around a single, coherent vision for its country's brand, emphasizing traits such as technological innovation.

This exercise should not just be the preserve of tourism agencies, let alone government, but must involve the private and civil society sectors too.

A good example is the "New Zealand Way" initiative which helped transform global perceptions of that country. Like Japan today, New Zealand was in the midst of a changing economic context during much of the 1970s and 1980s, partly caused by the country's loss of preferred trading status with the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

The New Zealand Way initiative helped transform perceptions of the country by building a destination brand for outdoor sports and tourism, in part, by leveraging the hosting of events like the 1987 Rugby World Cup and the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

Here, the untapped potential of the country's natural environment was recognized and subsequently showcased in films like the "Lord of the Rings," and it is no coincidence that the New Zealand tourism sector has since enjoyed a long boom.

Building upon the growing international appreciation of the country's unspoiled natural environment, New Zealand recognized that a strong country reputation for quality agriculture and produce would be hugely beneficial if it was to better compete in global markets.

The subsequent success of the country's agriculture sector, which has also become more competitive, is symbolized by the fact that it now accounts for around one third of global dairy exports ― that is twice Saudi Arabia's share of the world oil exports.

This situation underlines how even a relatively simple, unified country brand vision can be powerful. To be sure, New Zealand is not unique in having a beautiful environment, but it has managed to capture the world's imagination with its consistent branding, which has put outdoor activities and natural values firmly at its core.

New Zealand's success in creating its reputation based on its beautiful, clean environment and quality agriculture is a lesson that Japan would do well to learn fast, connecting its hosting of the Olympics to a wider story that showcases the nation's key strengths.

Andrew Hammond (andrewkorea@outlook.com) is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.