In a recent column, Tokyo Shimbun sportswriter Masaru Ogawa called on past and future Olympic athletes to come forward and talk about what he sees as the biggest problem facing the Tokyo 2020 Games: lack of construction workers. Next year, work on venues will start in earnest, but Japan is already burdened with a labor shortage, a problem most notable in the Tohoku region, where reconstruction is proceeding at a very slow pace.

Ogawa writes that if the Olympic organizers "set up events with athletes talking to workers at construction sites, the media will pay attention and report on the reality." Using the flowery diction that accompanies any discussion of the Games, he said Olympians should "show respect to those workers who are creating the venues of our dreams."

Much of the excitement surrounding the Olympics has to do with making money, and the biggest short-term beneficiaries are construction companies, who get to put up all those sparkling new stadiums and arenas that fall into disuse once the Games are over. Neither the people who promoted Tokyo for the 2020 games nor those who selected the city brought up the labor issue, which was well-publicized before Tokyo was chosen. But if Ogawa wants the public to be better informed about the problem, what does he expect people to do with that information?