Month: July 2019

With Tokyo’s summer heat and unpredictable weather likely to prove a severe headache during the 2020 Olympics, sports bodies are using every resource at their disposal to prepare athletes and spectators for extreme conditions.

Several organizations have turned to a weather forecasting company to feed them firsthand meteorological data in a bid to understand what to expect during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, which will be held in July and August, Japan’s hottest months.

“The weather cannot be changed — there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. What it comes down to is how well athletes prepare for it,” said Kazuo Asada, who runs the sports meteorology team at Weathernews Inc., based in Chiba Prefecture.

Weather-related concerns have mounted, especially after a historic heat wave hit the capital last summer, with the city of Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, logging a record temperature of 41.1 degrees Celsius.

The games’ organizing committee has said the threat posed by extreme heat and typhoons is considered a “major issue” resulting in the shifting of start times for several events.

While the committee is mulling different countermeasures, athletes will also need to prepare to be at their best in the worst conditions. Readiness for heat and other weather-related factors are considered vital to both health and performance, especially in outdoor endurance competitions.

Asada’s team, which has prior experience supporting Japan at the 2015 Rugby World Cup and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics as well as the Pyeongchang Paralympics and Asian Games last year, has been working around the clock with the Tokyo Olympics.

For the first Summer Games to be held in Japan in 56 years, the host nation is targeting a record 30 gold medals.

Asada will support about 10 Japanese sports bodies with athletes competing in Olympic events, including the marathon, race walking, triathlon and sailing — sports that are very much at the mercy of the weather.

“The Tokyo Olympics are held in midsummer. There is also a high risk of torrential downpours, so the weather has been the center of attention,” Asada, 43, said. “Every athlete considers countermeasures against extreme heat to be the overriding theme of their preparations. If they know what to expect, they can come up with a plan.”

The weather gurus have provided the sports bodies with information on what the weather has been like for the past two decades near competition venues. They have also made several visits to the venues during the summer to collect data, including temperatures, humidity and wind direction at given points.

“At the moment, we can’t predict what the weather will be like next year, but what we can do is see what it tends to be like by looking at the past — like how many times it rained or what the wind was like,” he said.

Last summer, the Weathernews team made three visits to the 2020 marathon course. The race will start and finish in the main Olympic stadium located between the busy hubs of Shibuya and Shinjuku and will take runners past many of Tokyo’s most famous landmarks.

The researchers would kick off their day at the scheduled starting time of the marathon and make a video while driving the course at about the same speed the athletes will run next summer.

Asada said the video will help runners familiarize themselves with course features without having to run the course ahead of time.

The team also recorded data every 5 kilometers along the course on Aug. 2, 2018, exactly two years ahead of the women’s marathon, and found, at least on that day, differences of as much as 10 degrees in road surface temperatures at various points.

“Knowing the weather doesn’t directly lead to winning. It’s really up to how it is utilized by teams,” Asada said. “It’s one of those things that, if used the right way, can help give athletes a better time or a score, and improve their chances of claiming a medal.”

“Athletes from other countries rarely have an opportunity to train and get used to the heat and humidity,” he said. “But those from Japan can prepare for this. I hope they will make the most of the home advantage they have.”

While Asada currently only supports athletes competing for Japan, he said he will consider accepting offers from sports bodies from other countries as well. He thinks foreign athletes will begin seeking advice once they understand the difficulty of tackling the weather in Tokyo after taking part in pre-Olympic test events.

Asada, who is also a general manager of a university rugby team in Tokyo, said the athletes are not the only ones who need to be aware of the deadly heat. Spectators who will fill the venues and line the streets for events like the marathon and cycling road races are also at risk.

“The athletes will be in their best condition ahead of their competition, but the spectators may not come prepared for the heat,” he said. “It’s difficult because they may come with lack of sleep or having skipped their breakfast. These are all factors that lead to heatstroke.”

While the capital hosted its first Summer Games in 1964 in the much-cooler month of October, next year’s competition featuring 33 sports and 339 events will run between July 24 and Aug. 9.

At a news conference in July last year, Meteorological Agency officials said the extraordinary heat is a “threat to life” and “a natural disaster.”

More than 54,000 people were rushed to hospitals for suspected heatstroke and heat exhaustion across the nation in July last year, 4,430 of whom were in Tokyo, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Following the extreme heat last year, the Olympic committee switched the starting times of several outdoor events so they will not coincide with the hottest times of the day.

The men’s and women’s marathons were pushed ahead one hour to 6 a.m. to mitigate the heat, while the men’s 50-km race walk will commence at 5:30 a.m.

The organizers are planning to provide information about weather conditions and safety precautions through the official mobile app.

They are also considering allowing spectators to bring their own bottled beverages into event venues, a departure from previous games at which sponsor and security considerations made such a possibility a no-go.

“This is all aimed at making spectators feel as comfortable as possible, given they have come to see events in a very hot and humid environment,” 2020 Tokyo Games delivery officer Hidemasa Nakamura said last month.

While he said that the countermeasures are still a work in progress, they will include a “specific focus on the elderly, children and international visitors.”

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is also rushing to tackle the heat. It has been installing special coating over 136 kilometers of streets in the city’s center with reflective material that reduces the surface temperature.

It will also install tents, fans and mist sprayers near venues during test events this summer, and examine the effects by surveying spectators and measuring temperature differences.

“We are still in the process of deciding our specific measures. We consider the test events an opportunity to let us know what works and where to put them,” said an official in charge at the metropolitan government’s Bureau of Environment.

Asada, however, said it is important for people in Japan to remain aware of the risk of the heat and other weather-related issues even after the Tokyo Games are over, as the country continues to experience rising temperatures.

“The Tokyo Games can start getting people to think more seriously about the heat. In a way, it might be meaningful that the Olympics take place during the summer.”

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Tottenham are unlikely to pursue Wilfried Zaha despite being ‘made aware’ of his desire to join them.

With just over a week of the transfer window remaining, Zaha seems no closer to leaving Crystal Palace despite stating he was “too ambitious” not to win trophies and play in the Champions League in April.

Arsenal were heavily interested in the winger this summer, lodging a £40m bid that managed to ‘incense’ Palace.

Despite suggestions that the Gunners were using their meagre reported transfer budget as “a smokescreen”, as well as claims they could offer three players as ‘sweeteners’, they have since turned their attentions to Lille winger Nicolas Pepe.

The Independent say that ‘the more favourable structure of the deal’ for Pepe saw them change their mind on Zaha, whose representatives were asking for too much. Palace also wanted £55m of the total £80m fee up front, while Lille were happy to accept closer to £20m of a £72m deal.

With his ‘wage demands far lower’ than Zaha’s, Arsenal came to the conclusion that Pepe ‘offered far greater value’.

Zaha is ‘now seeking to secure a move elsewhere’, with Everton denying that they had lodged a second bid on Monday.

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They ‘are the likeliest destination’ with Chelsea monitoring the situation but restricted by their transfer ban. Zaha ‘is also interested in’ joining Tottenham, ‘who have been made aware of the situation’. But they are currently reluctant to sanction such a move.

 

Virgil van Dijk has backed “good player” Kieran Tierney to become a success in the Premier League if he joins Arsenal.

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Tierney has been linked with a move to Arsenal throughout the summer, with Celtic demanding a double record fee for the full-back.

After having multiple bids knocked back, the Gunners were thought to have stepped away from negotiations.

But they remain ‘confident’ of following up the signing of Nicolas Pepe by striking a deal for Tierney.

Van Dijk, who left Celtic in September 2015 a matter of months after Tierney made his first-team debut, believes his former teammate “has the qualities” to play in England.

“It is not an easy step to make and you have to play well to do it. But he has the qualities,” Van Dijk said.

“Kieran made his debut against Dundee when I was at Celtic. I scored a free-kick up there and then he came on and helped us get the win.

“You could tell he was a good player who would do well.”

 

Juventus vice-president Pavel Nedved has confirmed that the club have received “proposals” for striker Paulo Dybala amid reported interest from Manchester United.

Romelu Lukaku has been strongly linked with a move to Serie A this summer and is yet to feature for United in preseason, and although Inter Milan seemed like the leading candidates it is now Juve who appear to be pressing strongest.

Reports have suggested that Juve are happy to send Dybala to Old Trafford as part of a swap deal, however the Argentine international looks set to decline that move as he wishes to stay in Turin.

Despite that, Nedved claims there has been some interest in Dybala from clubs, he said: “There are some proposals, there is some interest, but we wait for concrete action so we can then decide calmly.”

On speculation surrounding Lukaku, Nedved added: “Having won eight consecutive Serie A titles, we feel that we have a strong team already.

“Obviously, with the transfer market open, we’re trying to reinforce the squad.

“I won’t get into details and I don’t want to talk about individuals, but let’s say we are working on it.”

 

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Everton have categorically denied they have submitted a second player-plus-cash bid for Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha.

The Toffees, who are about to lose Idrissa Gana Gueye to Paris St Germain as he edges closer his move to the Ligue 1 champions after travelling to the French capital for a medical, took the unusual step of going public regarding ongoing transfer speculation.

Zaha was a target for manager Marco Silva but having had an offer rejected over the weekend they have withdrawn their interest, although that has not stopped claims suggesting they had returned on Monday with an improved cash bid plus midfielder James McCarthy and striker Cenk Tosun.

“Everton Football Club categorically denies that a bid has been submitted to Crystal Palace for Wilfried Zaha that included an increased sum plus Cenk Tosun and James McCarthy,” a statement from the club read.

“Everton and Crystal Palace have a very good relationship. A bid was made over the weekend which was turned down.

“Both clubs agreed that was the end of the matter.”

Silva and his director of football Marcel Brands are still trying to add to the summer arrivals of Manchester City midfielder Fabian Delph, back-up goalkeeper Jonas Lossl from Huddersfield and the permanent signing of last season’s loan star Andre Gomes.

However, they are resigned to losing Gueye having managed to stave off PSG’s interest in the 29-year-old in January.

After his involvement in Senegal’s run to the Africa Cup of Nations final Gueye was not scheduled to return to Finch Farm until next week.

However, PA understands he travelled to Paris for a medical and could complete a move in the next 24 hours.

 

With around a year to go until the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the age-old question of whether to put family or given name first when writing Japanese names in English has started to garner attention.

The issue was recently put into the spotlight by Foreign Minister Taro Kono, who suggested in May that major foreign media organizations should write the name of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as “Abe Shinzo,” with the family name coming first.

But the proposed change prompted strong push-back by those who claimed that the reversal of long-standing customs would cause confusion. Even Abe’s own Cabinet members were divided over the proposal, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga saying that his given name should come first in English.

When Japanese names are written in Japanese, the family name customarily comes first, followed by the given name. But when rendered in Roman script, they are written in the opposite order, in line with Western tradition.

According to professor Yasuyuki Shimizu, who specializes in Japanese language studies at Japan Women’s University, the earliest public records of Japanese names in English script were written with the family name preceding the given name.

When the Tokugawa shogunate, rulers of nation during the Edo Period (1603-1868), concluded the Treaty of Peace and Amity with the United States, the first treaty between the two countries, in 1854, the Japanese interpreter signed the treaty in English with the family name first.

But English-language magazines published in Japan started to put given names first for Japanese names from the 1880s, and the style was popularized in the 1890s.

A report drawn up by a now-defunct Japanese language council at the Cultural Affairs Agency in 2000 attributed the change in style to the effects of Europeanization in Japan during the Meiji Era (1868-1912).

The report went on to say that putting the family name first was desirable from the perspective of “linguistic and cultural diversity.” This was reflected in English textbooks used at junior high schools in Japan, which currently put Japanese people’s names in order of family name and then given name.

The agency had originally planned to call on government bodies and media organizations to adopt the family-name-first style, but it halted the move due to disagreements within the government.

Calls to put the family name first have also sprung up from the general public.

One such advocate is Shoichi Hasegawa, an executive of Jichi Medical University.

Hasegawa, 61, first took notice of the issue while working as expatriate staff in Paris for the now-defunct Home Affairs Ministry about three decades ago. He found that, while French people called each other with the given name first, it was not strange to find the family name preceding the given name in official documents.

This confusion about name order, he said, continued after he returned to Japan. During the Olympic Games, Hasegawa noticed that Chinese and South Korean athletes’ names were displayed with the family name first, in line with their cultural customs, while the names of Japanese athletes were displayed with the given name first.

Seeing the upcoming Tokyo Games as an opportunity for change, Hasegawa started contacting former ministry colleagues and friends from school in March to call for having the family name put before the given name. Support for the change gradually grew after a former colleague and current member of the Diet took up the call, when the statement by Kono was issued.

But Hasegawa said that it is not necessary to coerce people to adopt the family-name-first style.

“Government offices and the media should unify around family name first, given name second, but on an individual level, it should be left up to people,” he said.

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A Russian military plane’s incursion into Japanese airspace last week seems to be viewed by many Japanese government officials as an attempt, assisted by China, to throw off balance the three-way collaboration among Japan, the United States and South Korea.

Meanwhile, Japan plans to use North Korea’s latest launches of projectiles as an opportunity to strengthen its close cooperation with the United States and South Korea, government officials said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it had carried out a joint long-range patrol with China’s air force for the first time above the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.

According to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, on Tuesday morning two Chinese H-6 bombers flew from the East China Sea toward the Tsushima Strait and entered Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone. They headed north and joined up with two TU-95 bombers and an A-50 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane operated by the Russian military.

Of them, the A-50 AWACS aircraft intruded into Japanese airspace twice around the Takeshima Islands, off Shimane Prefecture. It was the first such intrusion by a Russian military plane, ministry officials said.

During the incident, South Korean fighter jets fired hundreds of warning shots at the Russian plane. The islands are effectively controlled by South Korea, which calls them Dokdo.

A senior Air Self-Defense Force official said the moves by China and Russia may have been aimed at interrupting cooperation between Japan and South Korea.

Toshiyuki Ito, a professor at Kanazawa Institute of Technology’s Toranomon Graduate School and former head of the ASDF, said that the flights were “a message from China and Russia against security cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea.”

“If tensions continue between the United States and China and between the United States and Russia, similar incidents will take place again,” he said.

Ito regards the Russian plane’s airspace violation as an operational mistake. In peacetime, there is no need to make an airspace incursion that involves the risk of being shot down.

On Thursday morning, two days after the airspace violation, North Korea fired two projectiles into the Sea of Japan that were believed to be new short-range ballistic missiles.

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Foreign Minister Taro Kono held separate telephone talks Friday with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, reaffirming that the three countries would work closely on North Korean issues.

The Japanese government plans to strengthen the three-way cooperation in response to the provocation by North Korea.

However, uncertainty hangs over cooperation between Japan and South Korea due to their dispute over Japan’s tightened export controls on South Korea, which in turn stemmed from bilateral tensions over South Korean court rulings on Japanese companies’ use of wartime forced labor.

Due to the strained ties, optimism that Japan, the United States and South Korean will be able to deal appropriately with attempts by China and Russia to drive a wedge into the three-way cooperation would be unwarranted, experts suggest.

The unusually long and cool rainy season has dampened demand for apparel, furniture and other goods, with some retailers already reporting steep drops in merchandise sales.

Shimamura Co., a chain of affordable clothing shops, reported last week that same-store sales through July 20 fell 18 percent from a year earlier. Many of Shimamura’s customers reach the company’s 1,433 locations in Japan via bicycle rather than car, so rainy days tend to have an outsized impact on revenue, a spokeswoman said.

So far, Tokyo has seen only about 44 daylight hours in July, among the least since the Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1890. There was one less Sunday this year compared with July 2018, and rain and overcast skies also appear to be keeping people at home, especially on weekends. Given that Japan’s retailers, especially Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing Co., are sensitive to seasonal weather trends, they will probably report weaker monthly sales in the coming week, according to Michael Allen, an analyst at Jefferies.

“All apparel retailers are likely to have suffered,” Allen wrote in a report, adding that the average temperature from July 1 to 25 was 22.7 degrees (73 F), compared with 28.3 a year earlier.

Right On Co., an apparel company with 495 shops and a web store, reported a 5.9 percent decline in same-store sales through July 20, pointing to weak demand for summer clothing. Furniture retailer Nitori Holdings Co. posted a 5.6 percent drop in same-store sales through the same period, as fewer people bought bedding and other seasonal products. Representatives for Nitori and Right On declined to comment.

Shimamura’s shares fell 3.5 percent on Wednesday after reporting its lowest monthly same-store sales since 2003. Fast Retailing hit a record of ¥69,810 on July 12 and the shares are up 19 percent this year, bolstered by overseas sales.

The Meteorological Agency hasn’t yet declared an end to this year’s rainy season. Last year’s season was unusually short, and officially ended on June 29 for the Kanto area, which includes Tokyo. That’s also likely to exaggerate comparisons this year.

The chilly weather hurt demand for summer outfits, such as women’s short-sleeve shirts and undergarments, Shimamura said. United Arrows, which has more than a dozen fashion brands, may have been able to mitigate the impact of the weather because a fifth of their sales are online, a spokeswoman said. Some customers also buy fashion items earlier for autumn regardless of the recent temperature, she added.

“While customer traffic at physical stores of apparel companies could be affected by the rainy season in July, shoppers likely switched to buy online,” said Catherine Lim, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “The impact to overall sales for larger companies with an established e-commerce platform such as Fast Retailing may be less severe.”

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Jurgen Klopp has explained why contract extensions are Liverpool’s transfer this summer as he oversees a quiet transfer window.

The Reds have made just two signings this summer in the form of Sepp van den Berg from PEC Zwolle and Harvey Elliott from Fulham, neither of which are likely to feature in the starting XI this campaign.

And, after winning the Champions League and pushing Manchester City extremely close in the Premier League title race, there are obvious arguments for not needing to strengthen this summer.

“That’s actually our transfers, but nobody’s interested in hearing that really because that’s how it is,” Klopp told ESPN FC why Liverpool’s contract extensions of key players are their transfers this summer.

“You have a player, he’s good, you want to keep him, if he signs a new contract then for a few people, it means only that he will be more expensive when we sell him or whatever, or that it doesn’t mean anything nowadays.

“In our case, these are our transfers. The new contracts and keeping these boys here is a strong, strong signal for the outside world. It’s wonderful sign, to be honest. I like the fact that these boys are really at a good football age.

“They won the European Cup, which is good and helps of course because it increases your base.”

 

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David Moyes believes it has been “difficult” to decipher Manchester United’s transfer policy in recent years.

United have made two signings this summer, with Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka both fitting their young, British and buzzy criteria.

With Harry Maguire and Sean Longstaff two other primary targets, United are prioritising more homegrown talents – although Bruno Fernandes has been perennially linked.

Moyes, whose only four signings in his ten months in charge at Old Trafford were Guillermo Varela, Marouane Fellaini, Saidy Janko and Juan Mata, feels Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has finally moved away from “signing players for marketing”.

“For a while it would be difficult to know what direction United have gone in,” he told the Daily Mirror.

“Whether they have been signing players for marketing, which they are fantastic at, or whether it has been signing players for on the pitch, I am not quite sure.

“What Manchester United had was great values and class. Manchester United’s values weren’t always to buy the most expensive players but to do it their way which was bringing in the boys from the academy and picking up the best young players.

“Now and again there would be a sprinkling of stardust, like an Eric Cantona, or someone who they signed to make the difference, like Robin van Persie.

“I never thought they were a club who thought it was all about spending the money, but if they needed to, they could.

“They have now chosen to sign some young players, and when you look back they signed Wayne Rooney from us at ­Everton aged 18. Cristiano Ronaldo was also 18 when he joined, so over the years they have had a policy of signing young players and many of them have been the best up-and-coming future stars.

“I think Man United just need to follow their values of old.”

 

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