News On Japan

From cardboard beds to plastic podiums, Tokyo 2020 introduces innovative, sustainable Olympics

Aug 03, 2021 (ARIRANG NEWS) - We're now half way through Tokyo 2020, and the organizers have done what they can to make it green and sustainable.

From beds at the Olympic village to the medals and podiums,... recycling has been the focal point throughout the Games.

Lee Kyung-eun tells us more.

There has been one hotly debated topic surrounding the Olympic village the cardboard beds.

The organizers say,... the frames are made from recyclable cardboard.

And mattresses are made from plastic materials,... that will be re-used.... after the Games.

It's part of Tokyo 2020's theme,... of going "green" and "sustainable".

But the internet was ablaze with rumors,... surrounding the beds.

With some speculating,... that they are designed to prevent intimacy among athletes,... in this time of COVID-19.

And that,... they easily break,... with little pressure,... as these two rowers from New Zealand claimed.

But it turns out,... those rumors are FALSE,... as demonstrated by an Irish gymnast.

The Olympics organizers re-tweeted the video,... saying “Thanks for debunking the myth. The beds are sturdy "

And Airweave the manufacturer of the beds also previously said,... that each one,... can hold around 2-hundred kilograms.

The beds are NOT the only thing,... that’s "green",... at the Olympics.

The medals,... are made from recycled electronic devices,... like cell phones.

Some 80-thousand tons of them,... were collected from across Japan,... to produce 5-thousand medals.

That's why the organizers jokingly told Olympians,... NOT to bite them

And the 3D-printed podiums,... are also made of recycled, donated plastic waste.

Tokyo 2020 is also trying to use,... as much RENEWABLE ENERGY as possible.

All this,... makes the Olympics,... that bit more sustainable,.. and special,... this year.

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Japan’s World Cup campaign ended in the cruelest possible fashion on June 29, as Gabriel Martinelli scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to give Brazil a 2-1 victory over the Samurai Blue in their knockout match in Houston. Japan had led in the first half and were still level at 1-1 in the final moments, but Martinelli’s late strike sent Brazil into the Round of 16 and eliminated Japan from the tournament.

Strong earthquakes have continued to shake parts of Japan in recent weeks, with 11 temblors measuring lower 5 or above on the Japanese seismic intensity scale recorded across the country since April 2026.

A Kintetsu Railway train derailed inside Kyoto Station on the morning of June 29, forcing partial suspensions on the Kintetsu Kyoto Line for the rest of the day and causing long delays that hit commuters, students and tourists.

A section of stone wall at Hikone Castle, one of Japan’s few surviving original Edo-period castles and a National Treasure whose main keep remains intact more than 400 years after its construction, collapsed after heavy rain caused by Typhoons No. 7 and No. 8, Hikone city officials said.

Japan advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup after a 1-1 draw with Sweden on June 25, finishing second in Group F and setting up a Round of 32 clash with Brazil in Houston.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

Prosecutors sought life imprisonment for Yukio Tanaka, a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai crime syndicate, as his trial over the 2013 fatal shooting of Osho Food Service president Takayuki Ohigashi concluded at the Kyoto District Court, with a verdict scheduled to be handed down on October 16.

Shinjuku Ward, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department have jointly established a Kabukicho measures council to strengthen efforts to prevent young people known as "Toyoko Kids" from being drawn into crime in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.

A 23-year-old Chinese man has been arrested and sent to prosecutors on suspicion of dangerous driving resulting in injury after allegedly crashing a Porsche into two vehicles at an intersection in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward on June 9, leaving three people with minor injuries.

The number of people with dementia or suspected dementia who were reported missing to police totaled 17,345 in 2025, down by nearly 800 from the previous year but still at a high level, according to a National Police Agency summary.

Removal work has finally begun on a massive hose that washed ashore on the coast of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, six months ago, but crews are already facing difficulties because the structure is filled with a large volume of water.

A 50-year-old woman has been arrested in Kobe on suspicion of abandoning the dismembered body of her former husband in a large freezer at a condominium unit, where she allegedly continued paying rent for more than 14 years while hiding his death.

A 50-year-old member of an organization affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate has been arrested in Yamaguchi Prefecture after nearly nine years on the run over the 2017 fatal shooting of a bodyguard for the leader of a rival group in Kobe.

An Iranian national has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to smuggle more than 40 kilograms of stimulants from the United Arab Emirates into Japan in March, after customs officers found the drugs hidden in the bottom section of a machine used in the process of making naan bread.