Tokyo 2020 Olympics Notebook - Day 22
Bottles of Japanese mineral water. In Japan, tap water is safer than mineral water.
What you need to know:
- Sunday's report said 131 water taps in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area have installed automatic water quality meters
- In Japan, the surname comes first and it’s in law that a married woman is supposed to adopt her husband’s surname
- Team Kenya have a psychologist, former swimming star Kanyali Ilako, embedded in Team Kenya and handling the athletes’ psychological concerns
Tokyo tap water safer than bottled mineral water
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Sunday was Water Day in Japan. Tap water in Japan is safer than bottled water because of the country's regulations on public water supplies are more stringent than those governing bottled spring water. Every day, tap water is inspected and reports made public. Sunday's report said 131 water taps in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area have installed automatic water quality meters. Data obtained from the meters covers “residual chlorine concentration”, “turbidity” and “color”. Maintaining a concentration greater that the national minimum standard of 0.1 milligrams per litre is required by law, and Bureau of Waterworks Tokyo Metropolitan Government sets a target value to be maintained of between 0.1 mg/L and 0.4 mg/L. “Turbidity” refers to the degree of muddiness of water for which the Bureau of Waterworks Tokyo Metropolitan Government set a strict standard of no more than 0.1 degrees.
Surname comes first, married couples must share name
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In Japan, the surname comes first and it’s in law that a married woman is supposed to adopt her husband’s surname. Japan is only the only nation that forces a couple to choose one joint surname, a piece of legislation that was reinforced just recently, on June 23, when the country’s Supreme Court upheld a 2015 ruling that married couples must share a name. Some couples have had to file for divorce merely in order to claim their old names. Some men even agree to adopt their wives’ surnames after marriage! Observes say the names rule is because for the conservative Japanese government, family is sacrosanct. However, a recent survey indicated that 84 percent of respondents (ages between 18 and 36) were for optional surnames.
Mental illness taking toll on sports superstars
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No effort has been spared in the fight against Covid-19 at these Games. However, another issue of concern has been the athletes’ mental shape. US gymnast Simon Biles and Japanese tennis sensation Naomi Osaka have already spoken openly about mental illness with Ugandan distance running sensation Joshua Cheptegei also hinting at mental pressure as part of the reasons behind his failure to bag gold last Friday in the 10,000 metres. Thankfully, Team Kenya have a psychologist, former swimming star Kanyali Ilako, embedded in Team Kenya and handling the athletes’ psychological concerns. Ilako has been involved in guiding the stars on how to handle success and failure in equal measure, along with the pressure that comes with the huge expectations from gold medal-hungry Kenyan sports fans.
