Sovereignty Matters
“Unequal treaty” is the term Japanese students learn in their history class related to the treaties Japanese government had to accept when it resumed foreign relationship at the time of Meiji Restoration in mid-nineteenth century. Signature and its renewal of Japan-US Commerce and Navigation Treaty in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which marked Japan’s regain of extraterritoriality and tariff autonomy, are remembered as the end of diplomatically unequal era. The Japanese reminded of that history by unchangeable contract with International Olympic Committee over Tokyo 2020 games. Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Japanese Olympic Committee and IOC signed Host City Contract 2020 in Buenos Aires in 2013, which determined the conditions to hold Olympic games in Tokyo. In Article 66 on termination of contract, it says “In case of withdrawal of the Games by the IOC, or termination of this Contract by the IOC for any reason whatsoever, the City, the NOC (JOC), and t