Two years: That's how long it took Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara to set up a new "arts council," extract from it a range of new policy ideas and get his staff to start putting them into action. It's not rocket-paced, but in a country famous for the slowness of its bureaucracy, it passes for commendable.
Of course, it would seem likely that Ishihara's haste was prompted by a simple and concurrent need: to bolster the cultural credentials of his city's 2016 Olympics bid. It seems obvious enough, that is, though his staff members deny a causal connection, saying the cultural reforms were made separately from the bid preparations. They claim, instead, that the reforms are simply meant to improve the cultural life of the city.
Either way, in the run up to the International Olympic Committee's decision in October on who will be the Olympic host in 2016, Tokyo residents are suddenly presented with an impressive array of new cultural treats, many of which can be traced back to Ishihara's new council.