Japan and China are hosting Olympic Games six months apart, creating more tension between two governments

By the closing ceremony of this summer's Tokyo Olympics, the Winter Games of Beijing 2022 will be less than six months away — an anomaly in the calendar, as the Olympics have been split in alternating even-numbered years for nearly three decades. 

Between Japan and China, the spotlight of international sport will beam on the Eastern Hemisphere through next February, creating another potential source of tension for the two governments that are accustomed to colliding on the world stage for a variety of reasons, from land disputes to human rights. 

International relations experts predict that Japan will be satisfied to merely pull off a stripped-down Summer Games with little fanfare as it struggles to control the pandemic due to a slow vaccine rollout and citizen fatigue regarding restrictions. Meanwhile, they say, China is gearing up to recreate the spectacle it displayed during the 2008 Beijing Summer Games.

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