Like many others, I dared to dream that Tokyo had turned a corner when Yoichi Masuzoe took over the Tokyo governorship from scandal-tainted Naoki Inose in 2014. Having lived in Japan 18 years at that point and paid millions of yen in taxes to city coffers over the years, I was interested to see how things would change, how the city I loved would better itself.
When Masuzoe moved into the governor's office in February 2014, the decision to award the city the 2020 Olympics was just five months old. The public was still buzzing.
And when Tokyo was selected as host over Istanbul and Madrid, I was happy for purely selfish reasons: I wanted to witness the Olympics up-close and personal at least once in my lifetime. Burden to the taxpayer — myself included — notwithstanding, is that so wrong?
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