Current time in Tokyo: July 24, 2:36 a.m.
TOKYO — An Olympic opening ceremony with all the usual pomp and tradition played out Friday night in Tokyo in front of a nearly empty stadium.
Athletes paraded in, waving at empty seats. Costumed volunteers gyrated as if to draw excitement from a crowd that was not there. Oaths were taken, speeches were made, dances were danced, all of it for the entertainment of millions of television viewers, but only perhaps 10,000 human beings, most of them members of the news media, dignitaries and Olympic volunteers.
The off-kilter spectacle arrived a year later than originally scheduled, the result of a postponement of the Games, and as the culmination of a year and a half during which the world grappled with the coronavirus pandemic. The evening included a pause to remember the millions of lives lost, a moment of silence in a mostly deserted stadium that was already silent.
Still, the ceremony, like the Games, went on. The big moments were all there: the lighting of the cauldron by the tennis star Naomi Osaka, an appearance by Emperor Naruhito of Japan, a parade of athletes in the colors and costumes of 206 nations, the singing of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Next up is 16 days of world-class sports in the same vein, a global spectacle with triumph and defeat set to a backdrop of near silence.
This was no year to be giddy. Past Olympic opening ceremonies have been overstuffed showcases for national stars, visiting celebrities and general theatrical excess. But the fraught Tokyo Olympics chose to be somber. Early in the ceremony, a Butoh dancer in white struck a pose of mourning. Most of the production numbers were about building or rebuilding: traditional Japanese carpentry assembling the five-ring Olympic logo, as a traditional Japanese work song turned into a tap-dance showcase. Later, an all-ages group frolicked around boxes that would form the Tokyo 2020 logo.
International stars — Angélique Kidjo, Alejandro Sanz, John Legend, Keith Urban — only appeared via video, singing what has become an all-purpose inspirational song: “Imagine,” which John Lennon said he wrote with his Japanese wife, Yoko Ono. (“Imagine there’s no countries,” Angélique Kidjo sang; what would the Olympics be then?) There was a brief nod to ancient Japanese culture: a Kabuki theater excerpt intended to dispel negative energy. And, shortly before the torch ceremony, there was one electrifying, genuinely live musical moment: the jazz pianist Hiromi, barreling through the rhythmic and harmonic twists of her composition “Spectrum,” as athletic as any Olympic sprint.
The selection of Naomi Osaka, the biracial Japanese tennis champion, signals the international message Tokyo wants to send to the world.
I’m in awe that anyone was able to put on an outfit of any kind and make their way to Tokyo in this extraordinarily difficult time, and I’m in awe that Japan has pulled this off, or at least for today. (And I say this as someone who has spent much of the last year and a half sitting in my pajamas at home, although I will now get dressed.) Let the Games begin!
Given all the hurdles and complications, I think they did a pretty good job, all in all. And as far as the fashion goes, I was really struck by the fact the smallest countries posted arguably the most interesting outfits. What did you guys think?
That was very elegant, Osaka lighting the cauldron, and then lights racing around the stadium itself.
reporting from Tokyo
Ah! the most famous Japanese athlete of all! Naomi Osaka gets to light the cauldron.
The torch relay ended with the tennis star Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic cauldron in what is generally one of the most memorable parts of the opening ceremony.
Following in the footsteps of Muhammad Ali, Paavo Nurmi, Rafer Johnson, Midori Ito, Yuna Kim and Wayne Gretzky, Osaka climbed a stylized Mount Fuji in the form of a pyramid to light the cauldron on top.
As always, it was the symbolic beginning of two weeks of competition, this year in the oddest possible circumstances with empty stadiums because of a global pandemic.
Osaka, one of the best tennis players in the world, climbed up a long set of stairs with the Olympic torch in her hand to light the cauldron, which sat inside a blooming flower.
Her mother is Japanese and her father is Haitian, and Osaka is wildly popular in Japan, but also around the world. She skipped Wimbledon to spend time with friends and family before taking center stage at the Summer Games, where there will be immense pressure for her to win a gold medal for her country.
Osaka, through her stardom, represents many things at once during this Olympic cycle. She is one of many mixed-race athletes in Japan who are challenging long held notions about race in the country. At 23, she represents a new generation of athlete and celebrity whose voice has emerged in the past year on several social issues, including race, both in Japan and the United States and beyond.
Her appearance at the ceremony prompted a move of her opening round match in the women’s singles tournament against Zheng Saisai of China. The match was originally scheduled for Saturday morning but moved to Sunday.
Juliet Macur contributed reporting.
We have made it to the apex of the opening ceremony. When something so weird, so delightful, so unexplainable happens at the 100th hour of a made-for-television event.
Suddenly, a set of blue humanoids — figurines/athletes/logos — blue Jacks from Jack in the Box? Whatever they were, they appeared in the center of stage and morphed into every type of athlete at the Olympics.
A three-on-three basketball player! No, an acrobatic gymnast! Oh wait! Archery! Was that an artistic swimming routine? Oh hey — badminton! Woah, beach volleyball! Guys look, they’re surfing! And weight-lifting too?! Aren’t there rules for this kind of thing?
Shock! Awe! Confusion! Joy! What are we watching? We don’t care!
In an empty stadium, I’m pretty sure that segment got the loudest cheer.
reporting from Tokyo
Nice to have Wakako Tsuchida, a wheelchair marathoner, in the torch procession.
Sadaharu Oh, the baseball player chosen to help light the Olympic flame, is ethnically Chinese. An earlier generation of diverse Japanese athlete but at a time when his background was not highlighted. From Oh to Hachimura, Japan evolves.
As JJ Fetter, a former Olympic sailing medalist who was a torchbearer in the U.S. torch relay some years back, said: “You’re nervous about tripping, and you can’t run with your arm going backwards and forwards as part of your normal stride, because then you would be waving the flame around. You don’t want to set your hair or anyone else’s hair on fire.”
reporting from Tokyo
Genuinely moving to watch Hideki Matsui walk with Shigeo Nagashima, both baseball players.
reporting from Tokyo
It’s time for the final torch bearers. Hideki Matsui, the former Yankee player is one of them.
In Beijing 2008, the hosts were so worried about problems that they lip-synched almost all of it. This felt riskier and real.
reporting from Tokyo
The Kabuki excerpt is from a famous play, Shibaraku.
reporting from Tokyo
the vigorous jazz pianist is Hiromi Uehara.
That’s some serious — and not prerecorded — performance from jazz pianist Hiromi, real daredevil stuff.
There was never much doubt that this year’s opening ceremony was going to be a smaller event than usual. Tokyo has gone to great lengths to keep the number of people in any one given location at a minimum.
Athletes have been encouraged to minimize their time at the Games, arriving close to their dates of competition and departing soon thereafter. Family members and friends are not allowed, and there are no spectators at most events.
But the attendance figure for the opening ceremony announced by the Olympic organizers summed up the state of these Games: In total, 10,400 people filled a stadium designed for 68,000.
There were approximately 6,000 members of team delegations in the Olympic Stadium, including athletes and team officials. Approximately 900 “Games stakeholders” and guests of honor also attended.
And some 3,500 media members, including yours truly, were seated inside.
Finally, Japanese culture makes an appearance in the ceremony.
For those not watching, some guys dressed in blue and white with their heads encased in giant ping-pong (?) balls covered in felt just enacted what appeared to be every single Olympic sport. It was perhaps more exciting to describe it than to see it.
reporting from Tokyo
And now, a video of Tokyo at night, which if you are in the Olympic bubble, you are not allowed to go see.
reporting from Tokyo
Motoko, sounds like piped in laughter to me. So odd to hear laughter at this ceremony. It took me aback.
reporting from Tokyo
Is that a laugh track?
reporting from Tokyo
Blue emoji man can do it all. He’s a swimmer!! No! He’s a … marathon swimmer!! But wait there’s more – a rower?! No a skateboarder! Actually wait – a surfer! Aren’t there I.O.C. rules about this kind of thing?
It keeps going…and going.
As fireworks light the night sky, the dark of the Olympic Stadium is illuminated by hundreds of cellphones from athletes photographing the pyrotechnics.
“The pandemic forced us to keep apart, to keep our distance from each other,” Thomas Bach says. “But today, wherever in the world you may be, we are united in sharing this moment together.”
I’ve seen Bach speak a few times at these things, and I have never seen him try to rise to an occasion as he is trying to rise to this one. “This Olympics experience makes all of us very humble,” he says, “because we feel that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We are part of an event that unites the world.” At a time when the only thing uniting the world appears to be a global pandemic, it is reassuring to hear someone speak, at least, to something beyond that.
reporting from Tokyo
In 1964, the emperor’s grandfather, Hirohito, opened the Tokyo Olympics. Now Naruhito, who was enthroned in 2019 after his father abdicated, is opening the Games, followed by a fireworks display.
reporting from Tokyo
Juliet, indeed, I am sure there is sadness, and we heard emotion in her voice as she spoke. She is herself an Olympian (in fact she has competed in more Games and more sports than Thomas Bach) so she knows what the athletes are missing.
It’s worth remembering that the modern Olympics have been canceled only three times: once during World War I, and twice during World War II. These Games are the first to be held after a year’s postponent. One of the many things that does your head in while thinking about this — and it happened with the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, too — is that here we are, in July of 2021, watching the 2020 Olympics. The year 2020 seems like yesterday, and it also seems like 100 years ago.
Thomas Bach refers to refugees as an “enrichment.” I’m not sure they would choose to enrich the Olympic community by having to flee home.
reporting from Tokyo
Thomas Bach thanked the volunteers for their hard work. They deserve that, and more. They don’t get paid and put in long hours. They risk catching the coronavirus, in part from people traveling into this Olympic “bubble.” All that while the I.O.C. members stay in a $500/night hotel and their organization makes billions of dollars from these Games.
Is some of the music during the parade of nations reminding you of a climactic battle you once fought, or perhaps a title screen you clicked through a hundred times?
You’re not wrong: The athletes are marching around Tokyo Stadium to songs from video games, which the organizers describe as “a quintessential part of Japanese culture that is loved around the world.” Songs from popular games like Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Sonic the Hedgehog and the Final Fantasy series have been featured. All were developed by video game studios in Japan.
Curiously, songs from Japan’s most well-known video game studio, Nintendo, seem to be missing. No Zelda, no Mario, no Pokemon, despite the fact that, five years ago in Brazil, Japan’s then-Prime Minister transformed into Mario, red hat and all, as part of the closing ceremony for the symbolic handoff of the Summer Games from Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo.
Thomas Bach is asking us to cherish this moment, to celebrate the fact that we are all here together. “This is the unifyng power of sport,” he says.
reporting from Tokyo
Motoko, you wonder how relieved Seiko Hashimoto will be after the Games are done. Could be that she will be sad too after everything that has happened?
Jill Biden, the first lady, clapped and waved on Friday as a contingent of masked American athletes joined the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Dr. Biden traveled to Japan as leader of a small presidential delegation, and her appearance came amid concerns of skyrocketing coronavirus cases in Tokyo. Biden administration officials said the first lady had wanted to travel to the Olympics to represent the United States and show support for its athletes, most of whom will compete in the Games without family members cheering them from the stands.
The first lady published an open letter to the athletes on NBC News’s website on Friday, telling the U.S. team, “You bring us together in a way that little else can.”
Before appearing at the opening ceremony, Dr. Biden participated in a whirlwind of diplomatic events, including a reception with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan and his wife, Mariko, at the Imperial Palace.
The first lady will stop in Hawaii for a vaccination event on her way back from Japan this weekend. This is the first solo trip abroad for Dr. Biden, whose traveling schedule currently outpaces her husband’s.
A bunch of athletes seem to have given up and are lounging on the floor, examining their phones.
The Laotian delegation is trying its best to wave its flag in the background as Seiko Hashimoto speaks.
“Imagine” was also sung at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. On that divided peninsula, its longing for a world without borders was ever so slightly pointed. But it’s peculiar for it to be turning into an Olympics staple. What exactly would the Olympics be if, as Angelique Kidjo sang for Tokyo, there were “no countries”?
reporting from Tokyo
Now nine minutes of speeches by Seiko Hashimoto, the organizing committee chairwoman and Thomas Bach. Hey, did you know he won a gold medal in fencing? That’s the second time they’ve told us that in multiple languages.
reporting from Tokyo
You have to wonder what is going through Seiko Hashimoto’s mind: she took over an already controversial Olympic organizing committee and had to deal with one scandal after another, not all of them of her making.
reporting from Tokyo
A giant rotating Earth has appeared above the stadium as John Lennon’s “Imagine” is playing. And hey, I might have something in my eye. Or allergies. This has been such a long year and a half, and we’ve suffered through this pandemic not just as a nation but as an entire world.
reporting from Tokyo
I’m with you, Sarah, That’s a powerful rendition.
