TOKYO: ‘United by Emotion’ was revealed as the motto for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics on Monday as organisers look to hammer home the message of diversity and inclusion.

Tennis player Naomi Osaka, who was born in Japan to a Haitian father and Japanese mother but raised in the US, narrated the motto’s promotional video.

“We are each different, and all so much the same,” Osaka says in the video, which showed her entering the newly-built National Stadium surrounded by a diverse group of supporters.

“And in these moments we experience and these emotions we share, we change what we can imagine together.”

Japan, which has long prided itself on being homogeneous, is becoming more ethnically diverse and Osaka, currently 10th in the world rankings, is often held up as the face of these changing times.

“Diverse groups of people, by sharing their emotions, will become one,” Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said during the announcement. “That is the kind of Games we want the Tokyo 2020 Games to be.”

The motto will be displayed on the iconic Tokyo Skytree, the Japanese capital’s tallest landmark, from Monday until March 25, the day before the torch relay begins.

Meanwhile, Tokyo Marathon organisers drastically reduced the number of participants for this year’s race on Monday out of fear of the spread of the virus coming from China.

The general public is being barred from the race on March 1. It will now be limited to a few hundred elite participants.

Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics and the International Olympic Committee have said repeatedly they will not cancel or postpone the games.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2020