The Japanese government has marked Dokdo as its own territory on the official website of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. This move is a clear attempt to use the Olympics as a platform to promote its territorial claim over Dokdo to the world.
More concerning is that after the Olympics, Japan is expected to use the inclusion of Dokdo on the Tokyo Olympic website as justification to push for the island’s designation as “Takeshima” in global textbooks and world maps.
This is not the first time Japan has engaged in such actions. Records from the Tokyo Metropolitan Library reveal that during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Japan similarly marked Dokdo as its territory on the torch relay map.
The issue is further complicated by Japan’s actions during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. At that time, the South Korean government had included Dokdo on the Olympic website and the Korean Peninsula flag. Japan strongly protested, claiming it was a “political act that violated the Olympic spirit,” and formally requested the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to intervene.
In response, the South Korean government complied with the IOC’s recommendation and removed Dokdo from both the Olympic website and the Peninsula flag.
Now in 2021, the Japanese government’s inclusion of Dokdo as its territory on the Tokyo Olympic website highlights a clear inconsistency. Given that the IOC intervened in 2018 in response to Japan’s complaint, allowing Japan to do the same without consequence contradicts the principle of fairness.
Moreover, while the IOC claims to uphold the separation of sports and politics and strictly prohibits political actions, it has turned a blind eye to Japan’s clear violation of Olympic principles. The organization, which recommended the removal of Dokdo from the PyeongChang Olympics, has remained silent on Japan’s actions in 2021.
This is not the first time the IOC has acted in a manner that appears to favor Japan.
When the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee announced that the Rising Sun flag—widely regarded as a symbol of Japan’s imperialist aggression—would be allowed inside Olympic venues, the IOC failed to impose any restrictions.
Despite Olympic Charter Rule 50, Paragraph 2, which explicitly states, “No kind of demonstration or political, religious, or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites,” the IOC has not upheld its own regulations.
VANK is launching a global campaign to expose the IOC’s complicity in Japan’s political maneuvering and to rally international opposition.
As part of this effort, VANK has designed a digital poster titled “Is the IOC a Puppet of the Japanese Government?” in both English and Korean, which will be distributed worldwide via social media.
The poster visually depicts Japan’s imperialist ambitions, symbolized by the Rising Sun flag manipulating the IOC like a puppet. Through this, VANK aims to highlight how Japan is exploiting the IOC to politicize sports. The poster will also include a link to a global petition criticizing the IOC for acting as Japan’s spokesperson.
Additionally, VANK has sent a formal letter of protest to IOC President Thomas Bach, urging him to take the same stance he did during the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics by formally requesting the Japanese government to remove Dokdo from the Tokyo Olympic website.
If the IOC wishes to avoid the disgrace of being labeled “Japan’s puppet” in the international community, it must take immediate action to uphold Olympic principles. VANK demands that the IOC pressure Japan to remove Dokdo from the Tokyo Olympic website.
The IOC must not stand by as Japan exploits sports for political purposes. Most importantly, it must prevent Japan from using the Olympics to falsely claim Dokdo as its territory.
To counter Japan’s influence over the IOC, VANK urges Koreans to actively raise awareness worldwide about how the IOC is serving as Japan’s mouthpiece. Through this campaign, VANK seeks to ensure that the Olympics remain true to their mission of promoting peace and fairness, free from political manipulation.