Tokyo, July 23, 2021
There were various anti-Olympic Games protests in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, as the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Games got underway at the national stadium on Friday.
Dozens of people, surrounded by police, gathered at the city hall with banners saying “Put out the Olympic torch”, “No Olympics”, and one which called the Games a “Global crime against Japan.”
There were also loud protests outside the stadium where fans were not permitted to attend due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Many others also met at the stadium to seemingly be close to the opening ceremony without protesting.
Recent polls showed the majority of Japanese do not want the Games to take place in Tokyo amid the global pandemic.
Flagbearers
Some countries stood out at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games on Friday for having only either a man or a woman flagbearer.
This was in spite of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) plea to have both.
Ethiopian male swimmer Abdelmalik Muktar and Tajikistani male judoka Temur Rakhimov waved the flags of their respective countries, in spite of having a mixed delegation.
Congo, on the other hand, had only female sprinter Natacha Ngoye Akamabi represent their mixed team.
In February, the IOC issued a statement asking participating countries to select both a male and female flagbearer where possible for the first time ever.
Other countries that only had a male flagbearer, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had a male-only delegation.
Delegations of countries known for conservative gender values complied with the IOC request, as male rower Husein Alireza and female judoka Tahani Alqahtani waved as they held the Saudi Arabian flag.
The IOC pledged to work towards gender equality after previous Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee President, Yoshiro Mori, was criticised for making sexist remarks about women in February.
Mori eventually stepped down from his role for making the comment.
The opening ceremony was meanwhile mired in scandal in the lead-up to the Games.
A composer and creative director involved in the ceremony both stepped down from their roles days before the start.
