As the Tokyo Olympics kick off in largely empty stadiums, Japan's major sporting goods makers have mostly given up on plans to use the event to promote their brands — and on hopes of seeing a sales bump.
The Olympics, already postponed for a year over the COVID-19 pandemic and with Tokyo under a fresh state of emergency as coronavirus cases rise again, opens on Friday without spectators at stadiums in the capital and at many venues elsewhere in Japan.
Given the mood, firms are going low-profile in games-related advertising lest they antagonize a public worried about the prospect of the Olympics becoming a virus superspreader event.