Status: 07/19/2021 2:52 p.m.
The 87-year-old Kohei Jinno had to leave his apartment because of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. For the second time he was expelled for the construction of an Olympic stadium – as was 200 other families this time.
Of Julia Linn,
ARD-Studio Tokyo
Kohei Jinno rarely returns to his old neighborhood in Shinjuku, in the middle of Tokyo. Every visit is an emotional burden for the 87-year-old. “I feel a great love for this place, where I was born and grew up,” he says with tears in front of the new Olympic Stadium.
Jinno lived here for more than 80 years and actually never wanted to leave his home. The house where he was born was exactly where the national stadium stands today – ready for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Only the address remains.
Kohei Jinno with an old photo of himself in front of the stadium.
Four people in a one-room apartment
It is the second time that Jinno has had to experience such an eviction: his family also had to move for the 1964 Summer Games. At that time they could stay in the area, but four of them had to move into a one-room apartment. They lived in poverty, says Jinno, but were still proud to have played their part in the success of the Olympic Games.
Jinno has become an authority in his neighborhood over the years. He ran a small shop that sold everything from laundry detergent to underwear, he remembers. He also looked after elementary school children in the after-school care center, played baseball, drew and did handicrafts with the pupils. Jinno has a photographic memory, he recorded his entire life in sketches.
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The street used to be a river surrounded by a park – now only Jinno’s sketches remind you of that.
1300 euros compensation for Olympic displaced persons
Jinno came as a surprise that he had to leave home after 50 years. The old national stadium was demolished and a new, larger one was built in the same place. There was no advance warning or announcement. He would have liked more consideration from the Japanese Olympic organizers. “I would have liked to have known earlier. It was not easy for me to build a new life at my age,” he says.
Jinno and his wife weren’t the only residents evicted for stadium construction in 2013. Around 200 families have lost their homes. They received 170,000 yen – the equivalent of around 1,300 euros – as compensation from the Japanese government. Far too little to find a new home, says Jinno. He also wishes the Olympic Committee to show sympathy for the people who, like himself, have become victims of the Games.
No grudge – despite a double stroke of fate
Today Jinno lives with his son and his family in western Tokyo, eleven kilometers from his old home in Shinjuku. His wife died three years ago. Jinno misses his old home. He doesn’t know anyone in the new one, he says, and nobody knows him.
Despite his own fate: He wants his city to be successful and is sad that Corona is dampening the Olympic euphoria: “I don’t want to face anyone who has anything to do with the Olympic Games with resentment, but to receive them with joy.”
