Five Rings That Rule Us All (w/Matt Alt)

Japan By River Cruise

Author of "PURE INVENTION," (sorry) Matt Alt takes us through his latest for the New Yorker on "Japan's Olympic Sized Problem."
If you want to find out just WHAT exactly that Olympic-sized problem is, you'll have to listen to the show.

Ollie recommends a cruise that features a very traditional brand of online-connectivity.

Bobby seeks adventure on the high... rivers.

Topics discussed on this episode range from:

• Ollie's continued transformation into man who lives in his mum's basement
• Kono Taro's omurice tweeting
• Being disconcerted over older politicians acting like instagram influencers
• What Chicken Rice is
• What Matt sees as improvement in the tech savvy of Japanese politicians
• Lunch picture popularity on Social Media
• The flurry of international coverage of the controversy over the Olympics, and what kicked it off
• The Takarajima-sha anti-olympics ad that we kind of discussed with Chelsea Szendi Schieder here.
• Takarajima-sha's history of being a company who makes statements, and it's slightly odd fixation with WWII/post-WWII as a golden age in Japanese history
• The difference in points of focus/emphasis in pro-Olympic messaging and the concerns of the citizenry
• The safest place in Japan
• The big question that's left unaddressed by the IOC and Tokyo's commitment to safety statements
• How Japan MIGHT be able to pull off a Seniors only Olympic volunteer brigade
• Can athletes be relied upon to stick to their pledge?
• How the Olympic situation is (understandably) compounded by the ONGOING STATE OF EMERGENCY
• How the claim that no one has tested positive at MOCK Olympic events is slightly undermined by the fact that people have already been infected at ACTUAL Olympic events
• How the government's priorities have come into very clear focus and angered the citizenry as the Olympics gets closer
• The reasons for going forward, and how the decision to go forward or to cancel should be evaluated
• Some predictions for what might cause cancellation, plus the contract issues that have Tokyo over a barrel, as discussed in previous episodes with Rochelle Kopp and Atsuro Tsujino
• Why the Olympics was supposed to be so important as a PR opportunity, and who might have succeeded where Japan has failed so horribly
• Japan's "regional rival, China"
• How we've forgotten that at the time of the original bid for the Olympics, much of Japan seemed like they didn't even want it
• The decade-long history of the resistance to the 2020 Olympics
• How different the effects of Olympics in 1964 were on Japan
• The prescient Olympic protest future of Akira
• Looking to Akira for Corona solutions

Get access to the extras by supporting the podcast for less than $1 an episode by becoming a member at http://buymeacoffee.com.

Topics Discussed on the Extras:

• Matt's podcast journey to promote his book, after we initiated him to the magical world of white guys with recording equipment
• The home recording studio Matt built to record his audio book
• All of the best praise that Matt can heap on us and vice versa, and more podcast sausage making in terms of how we run our podcast and invite guests
• How Presentation and speaking skills transfer to the world of podcasting
• Ollie's visa overstay amnesty in Malaysia
• Corona refugee-ism
• America coming into it's Japan-style Lost Decades, and what Matt thinks of the idea of Japanese social trends as a weird cultural outlier is flawed, and what trends in Japan teach us about late-stage capitalism/fallen societies
• Japan's blueprint for consumption and LACK of a blueprint for creation/monetization
• Japan's prototype for the gig economy
• How the internet supercharged Japanese trends
• The appeal of the Olympics, sports, and the way it ties into national identity
• Why Sports and sports in manga is so big in Japan, emotionally, culturally and historically

Have something you'd like to say? Send us a fax at japanbyrivercruise.com

or Tweet to us at @jbrcpod

Matt's New Yorker Article "Japan's Olympic Sized Problem"

Social Media Links:

Matt Alt: Instagram | Twitter | AltJapan | Pure Invention

Ollie Horn: Twitter | Instagram

Bobby Judo: Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

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Some are affiliate links because we're sell-outs

• We record remotely using Squadcast and the podcast is hosted on Transistor.
• Bobby uses the Samson Go Mic and Ollie uses the AT2005USB mic

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