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  Pukey2 at 09:33 AM JST - 7th August

  However, one sport in which Japan could, and really should, succeed here is in the baseball competition.

  Maybe, but as they say, Jp has never won it and Jp is not the only good baseball-playing nation. It's frightening to think that at Athens, more than half the golds came in judo. People have to realize that losing is also possible - see last winter games.

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  ExPrinceska at 09:37 AM JST - 7th August

  It won't be use for the Japanese judokas to match Athenes performance because the international athletes had already accustomed to the new rules (favouring Japanese judo).

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  serindipity at 09:53 AM JST - 7th August

  Baseball??? Ha! That makes me laugh. Japan has been playing baseball since the 1870's and they have only perfected 'the bunt'. They should have a good showing in judo and badminton, but they'll be lucky to pull a lot of medals in track and field and in the pool. The Chinese and Russians are gonna wipe the world with gymnastics.

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  Altria at 10:09 AM JST - 7th August

  Besides Kitajima and the Judokas, are any of them more than an outside chance?

  Any good marathon runners this time?

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  shayouzoku at 02:14 PM JST - 7th August

  looking forward to beach volleyball with saiki/kusuhara. win or lose, it's fun to watch. ;-)

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  romulus3 at 02:27 PM JST - 7th August

  romulus will be watching on the internet to avoid watching the 10th placed Japanese runner coming home, then crying and me having missed the brilliant fight for Gold, Silver and Bronze because of ethnocentric camera work.

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  romulus3 at 02:29 PM JST - 7th August

  They should put those crying Japanese late field placers in beer commercials...

  "Nodogoasgi nama, a beer you can cry over"

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  Sarge at 02:34 PM JST - 7th August

  I think Ogu-Shio have a good chance of getting a medal.

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  ExPrinceska at 11:22 PM JST - 7th August

  Romulus-kun, can you give the link to the internet tv? Princess is interested.

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  Pukey2 at 11:30 PM JST - 7th August

  Is Ogu-shio the badminton pair? Sorry, no matter how good looking they may be, I don't think they'll do well at all. I can't even remember the last time Jp won anything in badminton.

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  japanauthority at 12:16 AM JST - 8th August

  Japan sets sights on record medal haul

  That's a real good way to make yourself disappointed.

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  RomeoRamenII at 12:27 AM JST - 8th August

  only Arakawa had the foresight to pace herself against the world's leaders

  No, she's the only one who stayed on her skates in the final by performing a conservative routine. Big difference.

  RR

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  roomtemperature at 01:12 AM JST - 8th August

  RR

  Mao chan became worldchampion. And SHE didn't stay on her skates. Indeed.....big difference.

  Moderator: Stay on topic please.

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  smithinjapan at 03:46 PM JST - 9th August

  "With its stellar performance in Athens still fresh in the memory..."

  I guess its "less than stellar" performance in the winter Olympics has already been forgotten? Amazing how quickly they forget when it's a loss, and how amazingly long their memories are when it's in their favour. Granted, this is not the winter Olympics, and it's pretty hard to do worse than they did then. What's more setting your sites on a record haul is never a bad thing, so long as you're not INVESTING in getting a record haul, nor banking on it.

  Finally, I don't know if it's public knowledge or not, but the Japanese government after the last Olympics vowed to pay directly any athlete who gets a gold medal (or maybe just ANY medal). I think this is sick... while it's well known that gold medalists in any country will win huge amounts of cash via sponsorships and endorsements, etc., to be paid directly ruins the spirit of the games. Likewise, what happens when the athelete is JUST shy of winning and has somehow banked on the cash being there? What does it say about a government who is willing to pay out of desperation rather than simply put more money into the sports and training themselves? This isn't limited to Japan, but I'm sad to see it being done here.

  Good luck, Japan. I personally hope you do well (though I admit to wanting to see a couple lose out, but that's because I'm sick of the media hype more than anything, and hate to hear the same crap over and over when a certain person wins vs. the dead silence when they lose).

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  smithinjapan at 03:49 PM JST - 9th August

  ExPrincess: "It won't be use for the Japanese judokas to match Athenes performance because the international athletes had already accustomed to the new rules (favouring Japanese judo)."

  If the rules favour Japanese judo, the Japanese should do better, no? If they 'do not favour Japanese' as I suspect you mean, I see you are already taking the usual path of many Japanese who make excuses for why the athletes lost.

  "It wasn't the Japanese athletes fault, s/he did an EXCELLENT job! It was the fault of the rules" (ie. It's never that another country's athlete did better).

  If that's not what you intended to say, I humbly apologize.

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