Talk:Concerns and controversies at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2021 and 15 October 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Chase.ingersoll23. Peer reviewers: Jaycelyons, NateAugdahl.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:25, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Takefusa Kubo remark
IMO Kubo's comment on South African team is worth noting as it indeed caused controversies among publics. While there has not been articles or news to concern, the amount of discussions by public isn't small (at least on twitter and yahoo news where I checked).観音ボサツ (talk) 13:49, 8 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Certainly, some people talked about Kubo's statement on SNS. However, it has never been discussed in the media in terms of concerns or controversy, and there is no appropriate reference. (Quoting from Litera is certainly inappropriate.) In addition, his comments should not be taken out of context, since the gist of his comments is that we will not be afraid of COVID and he did not express any joy at the South African team being infected.--SLIMHANNYA (talk) 15:04, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Source issue of the news report on Chinese state media combining HK and Taiwan medals
Hello. I added a "Better source needed" template for that piece of news. Reason: although the Yahoo Sports report did say "In a re-jigged medal tally sent out on social media platform Weibo, China Central Television had the Chinese on top of the standings on 42 gold medals - three ahead of USA's 39", the picture (screenshot) it provided in that news report is not from China Central Television (state media). A more reliable and evident resource is preferred. --阿pp (talk) 03:47, 19 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Reports like this stating CCTV using the same screenshot (without CCTV), while reports like this just said "Chinese media" without giving screenshots and did not mention which media exactly. --阿pp (talk) 04:01, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Chinese people aren't stupid. They know they didn't win the medal tally officially and that Hong Kong and Taipei are separate teams.. They are just messing around and making a joke on social media only.

You can see the newspapers there don't publish the same medal tally on any of their news articles. Only once on Social media for a reason. It's satire with a nationalistic flair because they consider HK and Taiwan as all part of China but they still understand that they are separate teams. In their official state media articles like from Global Times, they only say 38 golds and that Team China is second place.

However the western tabloid grossly over hyped and spun a joke played on social media and misrepresented it. The US and Australian tabloid media spun it as if every single state media was claiming that. That is clearly false and misleading. Ie. here is an article saying they came second. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230873.shtml Tokyo Olympics in numbers: Team China ranks second in gold medal tally of the Tokyo Olympic Games. By Xu Zihe Published: Aug 08, 2021 05:57 PM

Casualfoodie (talk) 15:13, 19 August 2021 (UTC)


 * I like how the table has 42 Gold Medals (instead of 41) and these so called "reputable" news sources don't even ask why is there such a blatant mistake that has no plausible deniability. Like do people even bother to factcheck something this important? But it seems Wikipedia has no intention of letting people ask this question either. -210.6.154.28 (talk) 17:03, 2 October 2021 (UTC)

Why was this moved?
Why was the article title changed? Every single article relating to the 2020 Summer Olympics used the term "2020 Summer Olympics" instead of "2020 Tokyo Olympics". It should be changed back. -boldblazer (talk) 00:01, 24 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree and have moved it back per WP:BRD and WP:RMUM. If you feel strongly, please bring this up as a contested page move via WP:RM. Rodney Baggins (talk) 13:00, 24 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Not something I'll fight for. I though it made more sense, especially since they took place in 2021. Cheers!

Olypics / Paralympcs
Should things during Paralympics be listed in this article? (Concerns_and_controversies_at_the_2020_Summer_Olympics) // Zquid (talk) 19:24, 27 August 2021 (UTC)
 * No. They are distinctly different and separate events. And please don't take that to mean you should create a new article about the Paralympics. Wikipedia has enough of these negative, whiney articles. HiLo48 (talk) 01:07, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

Yasushi Akimoto
Sources and statements based on misinformation should be deleted. Akimoto has never been chosen as a director for the opening ceremony. Some gossip newspapers wrote stories based on speculation that he might have been chosen as director, and some people and foreign newspapers believed the rumors. However, Akimoto quickly denied the rumor. Furthermore, even if Akimoto is the director, criticism of other issues unrelated to the opening ceremony should not be written in the opening ceremony section.--SLIMHANNYA (talk) 15:34, 24 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Most sources in previous editions have written issues about Akimoto, but do not relate criticism to the opening ceremony at all. Their sources and descriptions are inappropriate for this page. The Guardian article links Akimoto to the opening ceremony, but it is an important fact that Akimoto was never chosen as director.--SLIMHANNYA (talk) 16:18, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Something should be in the opening ceremony section because for five years people believed that Akimoto would have AKB48 perform in the opening ceremony, and for that entire time, people campaigned against it (e.g., ). Furthermore, if you fully read the sources for the other criticisms, you would see that each time between 2014-2019 Akimoto or something related to him saw criticism, it had more and more people call for his removal from the Olympics planning board, and major newspapers cover it (e.g. ). Maybe propose restructuring/moving rather than delete perfectly relevant text because Akimoto wasn't specifically director of the opening ceremony. Kingsif (talk) 00:39, 25 January 2022 (UTC)
 * above Kingsif (talk) 00:43, 25 January 2022 (UTC)


 * I suggest that you reconstruct those texts and move them to Yasushi Akimoto. It is inappropriate to write in detail a criticism of Yasushi Akimoto that is not related to the opening ceremony while using a source that does not mention the opening ceremony. I am critical of Akimoto's business model, but this is another matter.--SLIMHANNYA (talk) 11:48, 25 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I suggest that you read the sources since they not only mention his involvement in the Olympics planning committee, but discuss the public criticism and calls for his removal. Whatever you think about Akimoto's business is irrelevant, and it is insulting for you to suggest that. Kingsif (talk) 21:59, 26 January 2022 (UTC)


 * I read those sources, but that didn't change my mind. There are many misinformation written in those references. The reference states that Akimoto proposed to select members of AKB 48 for the opening ceremony, but the reference I have given before indicates that it is a misinformation. It is also a misinformation that the online petition opposed Akimoto's appointment because of the exploitation of women. On the actual online petition page, the reasons for opposing Akimoto's appointment include "the decline of the Japanese entertainment industry due to Akimoto's increasing influence" and "the decline of the quality of the Olympics.". The reason is not women's rights or Nazi costume. The online petition was made before the committee members were elected and only 13000 people signed. (There is a link to the petition site in the text.) It's too small compared to the Japanese population of about 130 million. Mori, who was the chairman, resigned in a flood of criticism for his remarks about women. Sasaki, Kobayashi and Oyamada, who were the directors and composers of the opening ceremony, resigned after being criticized for their past remarks. Their resignation caused great concern and controversy and was reported in various media. Sugiyama was chosen as the composer and his music was used in the opening ceremony. But Akimoto didn't do anything at the opening ceremony, he didn't resign, he didn't have any impact on the Olympics. I didn't mean to insult anyone, but I'm sorry if you thought it was insulting.--SLIMHANNYA (talk) 04:10, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I think you're trying to quantify Akimoto's actual relationship to the Olympics, and comparing the level of his criticism to others, on your own metrics. And that is a form of OR - because even if Akimoto had nothing to do with the Olympics and was the least-criticized person in Japan, there are multiple reliable sources that connect controversies about him to the Olympics. Especially, multiple major English-language sources, which shows that, unlike other things included in this article, there was significant international interest. And we report what the sources say. Because whether they are completely accurate or blowing things out of proportion, they have said there is criticism and the controversy at least becomes real when their global audience reads it. So if The Guardian says Yasushi Akimoto, who controversially was named last year as a member of the Olympic organising committee executive board, proposed choosing the best of the AKB48 stable to play on the world’s biggest stage in five years’ time. The idea drew a withering rebuke from TV celebrity and columnist Matsuko Deluxe, who said the idols would be “an embarrassment”. - well, we can say that he later said he wouldn't use AKB48 if you have a source for that, but that doesn't actually mean that the controversy didn't exist. That is what we include here. So any more long paragraphs about truth and how you don't think the Akimoto controversy should have happened or you think it's too small to matter is completely irrelevant. It did and it was, reliable sources demonstrably say it did and it was, and thus it should be included (and certainly more than half the poorly-sourced sections, at that). Kingsif (talk) 23:57, 27 January 2022 (UTC)

Please do not write on this page the individual issues of Akimoto and the group he produces, citing the source in an inappropriate way. Several sources that mention Nazi costume, Maho Yamaguchi and BTS do not say that Akimoto was accused of being a member of the Olympic organizing committee because of those issues. They are all sources of writing about Akimoto's lyrics and the individual issues of the group that Akimoto produces. Those descriptions are appropriate for the Yasushi Akimoto. The sources I have presented indicate that rumors and reports that Akimoto will oversee the opening ceremony are not true. The description has been moved from the director section because it contradicts the information in the Guardian.--SLIMHANNYA (talk) 11:36, 28 January 2022 (UTC)

Correction in article
A source in the article wrongly misattributes the reason for a petition against Yasushi Akimoto, being a member of the organizing committee, as being due to his misogyny. The source links directly to the petition (in Japanese) which makes no mention of misogyny or of the reason why he's being accussed of misogyny (his lyrics). Instead they give his production of talentless entertainers and his bringing a furthering decline in the Japanese entertainment industry as reasons for their opposition to his role at the organizing committee. I reccommend DeepL if you want to confirm the contents of the petition. I tried including it as a source and then as a link in the edit summary but Wikipedia didn't allow that. I further tried linking the change.org petition here in the talk page but Wikipedia is also blocking it, the source below links to it in the first paragraph so you can find it there. I'll try to see if i can find an article covering the petition correctly, if i do i'll add it to the article and also provide the link here. Dropfour (talk) 03:22, 30 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Link to source being removed: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1018986/tokyo-2020-under-fire-for-appointing-sexist-music-producer
 * Link to article covering the petition correctly: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-03-22/akb48-producer-akimoto-to-produce-2020-tokyo-olympics-opening-ceremony

After Olympic Controversy: Chinese athletes doping
There's been a lot of debate recently after a New York Times article stated that several chineses athletes took performance-enhancing drugs and were not punished for it. Actually, they used the same excuse as a Russian athlete that doped, but the Russian athlete was banned for 4 years. Thus there's been a lot of strife that the WADA did not go through the official protocol and possibly could not be fair for this upcoming game.

Should this be included in the page? Jamisonsupame (talk) 14:47, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Yeah, if there are secondary sources about debate occurring - otherwise just add what the NYT article said. Kingsif (talk) 18:51, 15 May 2024 (UTC)