Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Japan’s nationalists protested against the South Korean Olympic team staying in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic village on Sunday.

The protesters, shouted from loudspeakers installed on their trucks and denounced the team that displayed banners criticizing Japan’s history during the invasion of their country.

“Why do we allow the Korean delegation to display such banners?”, “Kick them out of Japan,” the nationalists protested. 

The Korean team removed the banner following the International Olympic Committee’s complaint that the banner violated the Olympic Charter’s Rule 50, which bans political, religious, or racial advertising.

Security members guarding the building of the Korean team blocked the nationalists, who had a skirmish with the police and left the place in the end.

One other problem surfaced when the Korean delegation expressed concerns that meals containing ingredients from the northeastern Japan prefecture of Fukushima, home to the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, may be served at the Olympic Village.

According to a report by the country’s Yonhap news agency, South Korea will start a full-fledged food service for its athletes and others from a hotel near the Olympic Village in Tokyo on Sunday.

South Korean delegation will receive some 420 meals per day in Olympic venues and training fields, the report said. South Korea dispatched 14 cooks and nutritionists who brought foodstuffs, including Korean pickles, to Japan. They plan to conduct radiation checks on foodstuffs procured in Japan, according to the report.