The Olympics Transformed Tokyo

Above, the modern Japanese high-tech toilet may not be around today if it weren't for the 1964 Olympics. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Japan Times has an interesting article on how the 1964 Olympic Games transformed Tokyo into a modern megalopolis by Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time.

Whiting's article is introduced with the following:

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the opening installment of a five-part series that will run during the next two weeks, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, takes a look back at the preparations for the event.

One of the interesting things about the Tokyo of old is that they didn't very many sewers. New sewer lines had to be built to accommodate flush toilets. At the time, the prevalent toilets in use were the "scoop and dispose" variety, which had their own set of problems according to the article.

Whiting wrote:

A half century later, Tokyo would be justifiably famous for its high-tech toilets, with their automated lids, water jets, blow-dry functions and computer analyses, that headlined an impressive sewage system. But in that era, despite the frantic rebuilding, less than a quarter of the city’s 23 sprawling wards had sewage systems at all, making Tokyo one of the world’s most primitive (and odiferous) megalopolises. 

How times have changed!

Also, our favorite Mothra shobijin, The Peanuts, get a mention in the article.

To read the full article, go here.