Last Sunday, an excited, sizeable crowd ignored social distancing advice and clustered at the entrance of Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park to photograph the newly-installed, special edition 2020 Olympic commemorative manhole-cover.

At the time, the Japanese authorities were adamant that any postponement or cancellation of the games was “unthinkable” — no matter how implausible each passing hour of coronavirus news made that seem. Tokyo needed to press on with decorating its manholes (along with everything else) ahead of the most heavily-sponsored sports event ever staged: a record $3.1bn glut of marketing financed, in large part, by Japanese companies.

But that sponsorship figure, bigger than the equivalents raised at the London 2012 and Beijing 2008 Olympics combined, reveals a vulnerability that affects Japan disproportionately more than previous hosts. No matter how epic the sporting spectacle and aspirations, Tokyo’s Olympics were freighted with corporate ambition from the start. This was to be a show of Japanese national strength, organisational brilliance and innovative verve expressed through industrial actors. Superstars such as Toyota and Panasonic would shine as brightly as the Olympic flame itself. But they also had carefully nuanced agendas, say people involved in crafting them, that went beyond mere branding.