"Children" are central in the politics of the past, present and future in Japan. While I have an academic interest in the way children are presented in wartime narratives in Japan, I have been struck more recently by the ways in which children have been politicized in the present adult dreams and aspirations of the possibility of Tokyo hosting the Summer Olympics in 2016.

As the Oct. 2 vote for the 2016 Olympics draws near, I have seen the games being promoted as something old Tokyo will give to the new. As a "green and youthful" games, the Tokyo Olympics are presented as a gift. I use the passive voice intentionally because it is unclear in the official site and much of the media coverage as to who is eager to have Tokyo host the games. I am pretty sure that Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is anxious about the vote, but it is not as clear who represents the Tokyo 2016 Bid Committee. I can only guess that they are likely older men, feeding off their memories of past Olympic dreams.

While the 2016 bid seeps with 1964 nostalgia, its promotion is framed as something that will be fulfilled in the future. It will be the children's games to inherit. The committee seems none too shy to place the children in front of the camera to promote this image.

Like something coming from the offices of the Oriental Land Co. (owners of the Tokyo Disney Resort), the official site declares that the games are an event to "inspire and foster dreams in our future leaders — the youth of Japan, the youth of the world — and will contribute significantly to human advancement, global peace and prosperity." The Tokyo 2016 Bid Committee certainly isn't shy about dreaming big and in technicolor. It sounds like a promise that would appeal to children's sugary sweet tooth or to adults thick with idealism.

As the bidding period comes to a close, children have received more airtime. I have heard 10-year-olds comment sincerely on how much they look forward to attending the games, as if the bid was a done deal. I have watched children sign a letter of support for the games to be sent to the International Olympic Committee. And I have seen the games promoted as something that will restructure the Tokyo landscape, making it more green, providing more green space and playing fields for the children of the future.

It's hard to resist the cute smiles and dimples.— Children at their cutest — and at their most terrible — mesmerize us, drowning out other signs of activity, becoming the center of our attention. They charm us, washing away the cynicism and anxieties of adults. If a child tells you that they are going to participate in the Olympics, are you going to be the one to tell them the odds of this happening? I don't think I could stomach the look of disappointment and I could use the joy. Children: the perfect tonic for adults feeling the hangover of the lingering effects of the economic crash.

I don't want to be a killjoy, but I am anxious over the ways in which the innocence of children is used to insulate criticism of Tokyo's Olympic bid. Really, the Olympics is no kids games and support for the bid is far from unanimous. People forced to relocate their businesses to make way for the development of facilities, such as workers at Tsukiji fish market, still have not come on board. And how is uptown capital used to redevelop uptown land going to help lower- and middle-income families find affordable housing in downtown Tokyo?

A successful bid will transform the urban landscape of Tokyo in dramatic, uneven ways. It will produce more green space in some areas while leaving other areas, perhaps in need of more green space, unaffected. Instead of shooting for the advancement of "global peace and prosperity," shouldn't the bid committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government be working toward narrowing the growing divisions between the haves and the have-nots within Tokyo?

The Tokyo government seems intent on pushing the idea that money brought into Tokyo with the Olympics will move, without friction, throughout the entire landscape of the city. It is easy to project this kind of vision onto an empty seascape, but redeveloping neighborhoods is more difficult to do. Besides, what are the chances of the Olympics providing more green space for children through all 23 wards of Tokyo? What are the chances children living in Nerima Ward are going to use facilities built in Odaiba? Not good. Realizing the impossibility of equal distribution of facilities might help adults come up with more realistic ways to enrich our children's lives.

The writer lives in Japan and is completing his Ph.D. in history.