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Marriott-Starwood merger to spark turf war in Japan According to Japan Times, Marriott is poised to expand its business in Japan ahead of Tokyo’s hosting of the Olympic Games in 2020, when the government wants to achieve a target of 40 million foreign visitors a year. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/05/24/business/marriott-starwood-merger-spark-turf-war-japan/#.WGKp4_mLTIU Clearly, Marriott and Starwood see the massive influx of tourists as a potential source of business. They hold higher advantages based on the offers of luxury facilities and higher overnight rate through increased foreign visitors compared with local hoteliers. The intense competitions that the local hoteliers facing is huge. The reason is Marriott Hotel employs staff with multiple languages so they can better accommodate visitors who speak different languages. In fact, the government is putting 10,000 English signs in the city as a transformation. http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2016/02/02/tokyo-to-add-english-to-10000-signs/ Indeed, they are increasing accessibility and helping the government to better accommodate the incoming visitors as the government has aimed to achieve 40 million visitors per year. Well, this is just a statistical assumption. It is also notable that their earned profits give a hint of leakage because most of the money will be repatriated back to the headquarter. On the environmental aspect, Marriott has strong sustainable approaches in contributing positively to the environment. Its sustainable commitment perhaps can bring a greater influence on the communities as well as its partner- Starwood Hotel. Overall, it is not difficult to foresee the impacts on local accommodation providers. These may include the rise of resentment, time and money consuming in staff training to ensure the delivery of excellent customer service as well as language improvement to stay competitive.

Tokyo has facilitated a range of sustainability approaches that incorporate environmental, social and economic aspects. In response to the adoption of Paris Agreement which concerns about the climate change issues, the Tokyo 2020 Sustainability plan has meshed with the Tokyo Vision 2020. It involves the collaboration of both the Tokyo Organising Committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government who are aiming to transform the city into a sustainable urban called ‘smart city’ over the next eight years. They will make positive improvements on the local transportation system, replacement of renewable resources and transformation of citizens’ life. A smooth mega event requires the engagement of both governments and local businesses. Whilst Japan has a strong domestic industry, opportunities are given to the local companies for contribution. The Tokyo Committee has shown a strong interest on the private sector during the stage of preparation and management. It is evidenced that 42 local sponsors compared with 10 international sponsors. Ideally, local business brands can gain greater exposure and benefit from future businesses. For example, Toyota has plans to introduce over 100 fuel-cell buses in Tokyo and sell more than 30,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles annually worldwide. Its sophisticated technology contributes a greener environment, greater accessibility for citizens and increases business relations.

The Rio 2016 was the first mega event that Nissin sponsored and Tokyo 2020 Olympics as the second sponsored event is the ongoing one. In this way, they seem actively involved in the sponsor role meaning a higher possibility to sponsor other sporting events in the future. https://www.nissin.com/en_jp/news/5269

It is not rare that Nissin has once again become a sponsor of a sporting event. Surprisingly, it was the 29th official sponsor of Manchester United. It came out with a marketing campaign named "Hungry to Win" embraced a 30-second advert displayed in Japanese animation. This enabled a further promotion of Manchester United as well as the food products to a wider market such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, India and Mexico. Notably, the promotional concept had a strong equality and this could be seen from the video promoted in a combination of Eastern and Western culture. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manchester-united-sign-up-yet-3867891 http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Club-News/2014/Nov/Nissin-launches-Manchester-United-animation.aspx The involvement of both international and national sponsors in mega events is a common phenomenon, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has no exceptional. There are 12 worldwide sponsors compared with 14 Japanese Gold partners and 27 official Japanese sponsors in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Clearly, Japan has shown more attempts in engaging more local private stakeholders (national sponsors) in achieving a higher sustainable competitive environment which is a very positive practice. https://tokyo2020.jp/en/organising-committee/marketing/sponsors/ https://tokyo2020.jp/en/organising-committee/marketing/sponsorship/