Chapter 4: Case Study

Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics Case Study

This case study and case problems that follow were adapted from the publicly available volunteer strategy for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Japan hosted the 2020 Summer Olympics from July 24 to August 9 in Tokyo. The event, commonly known as Tokyo 2020, was the second hosting by the country after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Most games will be played at venues within the prefecture of Tokyo or areas nearby. Twenty-eight of 32 competition venues are clustered around Tokyo within a 5-mile radius of the Olympic village, the residence facilities for athletes and staff. Eleven new venues are currently under construction. The Tokyo Metropolis is the largest metropolitan city in Japan. In fact, the Greater Tokyo area and its surrounding cities represent the most populous city in the world. Tokyo has a population of 39 million residents, with an economy equivalent in size to the eighth largest economy in the world.

Volunteer Program

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics has a vision statement, “Unity in Diversity.” The 2020 Olympics Committee promotes this vision in the volunteer program by encouraging volunteer participation from people with diverse backgrounds. One of the program’s goals is that through the volunteering experience, people will continue to remain active in their volunteering roles in their communities after the games.

The committee has implemented the volunteer program of the London 2012 Games as its template for running its volunteer program. The program has volunteers organized into two groups with different roles for the games: game volunteers and city volunteers.

1. Game Volunteers aid in the operation at the competition venues, media centers, and Olympic villages. The tasks involve providing support in the following areas: operation of games at the venues, security checks at the Olympics facilities, operation of the Olympics village, registration and issuance of IDs for the Olympic athletes and staff, and equipment checks and distribution of them to the venues. They are active prior to and for the duration of the games. Table 1 depicts a sample of the job descriptions and specifications for “games volunteers” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (TMG & TOCOPG, 2016).
2. City Volunteers guide those visitors with tourism and transportation information and, provide them with directions to game venues. City volunteers are deployed for athletes, staff members, and visitors at major transportation points, such as airports, major train stations, and popular tourist attractions. Special booths are set up at those locations to welcome athletes, staff personnel, and spectators to Japan.

Volunteer leaders of either group are responsible for checking attendance of team members and acting as liaisons in the event of emergencies.

Job Descriptions and Specifications for “Games Volunteers” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Note. The table content of job descriptions and specifications came from the publicly available volunteer strategy provided by Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020.