After originally omitting Japan from the world map, a PyeongChang Olympic website fixes the mistake only to have it erased again weeks later.

Late last September we reported on a bizarre oversight in which the entire Japanese archipelago was missing from a world map posted on the website of the PyeongChang Dream Programme, a charitable group that assist youths in warm climate countries participate in winter sports.

▼ Photo taken 27 September

It seemed like a careless oversight from what is otherwise a great sports program, and very shortly after word got out the map was fixed to include Japan. For a few weeks things had returned to normal, but on 13 October Japan had again gone missing from the exact same website’s map.

▼ The gone-again Japan was tweeted by
Japanese parliament member Masahisa Sato.

▼ Screenshot shows the missing nation
with the computer’s date reading “13 October.”

▼ Depending on the language, different images would appear.
In some, both Korea and Japan were simply covered by a blue circle.

This eliminates any possibility this was an accident despite an organizing official telling The Associated Press the original omission was “a simple mistake.” It seems certain now that someone has a chip on their shoulder and is monkeying with the map. There has been no statement so far regarding who it might be, but this is likely the work of a rogue staff member or, the perennial online scapegoat, hackers.

Needless to say, some Japanese people were quite miffed according to comments:

“It’s clearly deliberate if it happens again after getting fixed once. I think we are at the point of discussing a protest.”
“I feel like we should boycott, but that would suck for our athletes.”
“I feel sorry for the people who are planning to participate, but I think we should sit this one out.”
“It’s getting to the point where I feel worried about the safety of our team over there. It feels pretty hostile.”
“If France is considering not going because North Korea is a threat, Japan should do the same because both Koreas are a threat.”

Considering this is a minor graphic on a subsection of the PyeongChang Olympics website, boycotting seems a bit extreme. However, it certainly is weird and creepy.

As of this writing the website appears to be undergoing an overhaul perhaps to beef-up security or scour it for any other subtly offensive images.

▼ During the morning it looked as if they would use
another large blue circle to avoid future problems altogether

▼ By midday the entire Dream Programme section was gone,
and I was redirected to a rough top page with gigantic photos

Hopefully in the end this whole mess can be put behind us, and then we can get back to eliminating countries the old-fashioned Olympic way, by outperforming them in curling and/or ice dancing… or possibly by uncovering drug use.

Source: PyeongChang 2018 Dream Programme, CBS News, Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@SatoMasahisa
Insert images: SoraNews24