Tokyo Fifty Years Ago

Fifty years ago, Tokyo must be a very interesting place for the world to see. The highlight of 1965 was that Tokyo hosted a summer Olympic game in the year before. This is the first Olympic game hosted not only by Tokyo, but also by the whole Asia. This Olympic game took place from October 10^th to 24^th; according to The Miami News, Tokyo Olympics was the first to be telecast internationally without the need for tapes to be flown overseas; this was also the first Olympic Game to have colour telecasts partially. It gave the world the impression that Japan was a high technology country. From these two pictures of Ginza in Tokyo in both 1964 and 1965, we can see Japan had already developed public transport facilities; the use of advertisement was mature as well.

Through this opportunity, Japan show the world its talent for organization; it success earned it three awards from the International Olympic Committee- the Olympic Cup, the Bonacossa Trophy and the “Diploma of Merit”. In this Olympic game, two new programs with Japanese feature had appeared: judo for male and volleyball for both male and female. Female volleyball was the first appearance of a team sport which gained women higher status inside the country; it told the world that in Japan, women were not merely the image of housewives anymore, they could have careers and fought for their country’s honor.

In 1965, Japanese were still engaged with the pride as they were the first Asian country which held an important international event; Japan is moving towards the goal of globalization. In my view, if a foreigner walked on Tokyo’s street in 1965, he or she would be surprised by Japan’s development and held a new set of belief about Japan.