Word: nagano
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...miffed about comfort women or experiments with bubonic plague, particularly since Japanese textbooks still have a propensity to gloss over such wartime atrocities. But in an ex-imperialist country whose identity was so shattered that it ended up adopting peace as a national virtue - during the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics flocks of dove-shaped balloons were released into the air, underlining the not-so-subtle point that Japan wasn't about to declare war anytime soon - the return to traditions is refreshingly, well, normal...
Modern China and Japan have never been close. There's just been too much history between the two countries. But ties have improved lately and Beijing's Olympic torch made its tour of Nagano City without much incident last week (unlike a later, tumultuous journey through South Korea). But now, just as Tokyo is about to welcome Chinese President Hu Jintao on a relatively extended state visit, a strange omen has occured: Ling Ling, the only panda that China has given rather than loaned to Japan, has died...
Thousands of Japanese riot police were mobilized to safeguard the torch along its 18.7 km (11.6 mi) route in the city of Nagano - the host of the 1998 Winter Olympics. The show of force kept most protesters in line. Compared with those of some previous host cities, Nagano authorities managed to maintain relative calm, but the cacophony of slogans shouted by pro-China or pro-Tibet demonstrators, Japanese nationalists and human rights organizations flooded air already full of the colors of Chinese, Tibetan and Japanese flags. "Clearly, the mix of demonstrators shows that Japan is a peaceful nation after...
...torch relay in Nagano came off without serious incident because it had to. The public was not allowed at the car park where the relay began at 8:30 a.m., after the Zenkoji monks held a prayer ceremony for victims of the recent uprising in Tibet. Shortly afterwards, pro-Chinese demonstrators yelled "Zhongguo, jia you!" (which means "China, go for it!") at pro-Tibet demonstrators who yelled back "Free Tibet." That dialogue continued at high volume throughout most of the 5-hour relay...
...tried to stop the torch early on and was immediately dragged away by police. But aside from a few minor deterrences - including a few raw eggs tossed from the crowd - the torch bearers' passage was without incident. The flame arrived at its final destination, the outdoor stage of the Nagano cultural building, in the hands of Japan's gold-medalist marathoner Mizuki Noguchi. Japan emerged from its Olympic relay with its honor intact and its relations with China unscathed...