DID YOU KNOW that Miyashita Park (Shibuya, Tokyo) is going to disappear?

NIKE, the sporting giant that has established its name for turning backstreet sports into main street sports, has now come up with a project to construct a NIKE Park in Shibuya, the most fashionable area in Tokyo. The park will provide facilities such as skateboarding pipes and rock-climbing areas. The agreement between the Shibuya Ward Council and NIKE Japan provides that NIKE Japan will purchase the naming rights of the park, which is located a stones throw from Shibuya Station — a prime location for advertisement — thus enabling the Shibuya Ward to benefit financially from the sale of the naming rights. This deal seems to produce a mundane win-win relationship between a local administrative body and a corporate giant, but is it really so? In our view, NIKE ...

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