A Japanese craftsman's one-man Olympic boycott

TOKYO — Masahisa Tsujitani is getting a lot of attention these days for a man who has spent much of the last 40 years bent over a lathe in a garage workshop, where amid the sharp smell of burnt oil and iron he grinds out some of the finest 16-pound shots ever tossed by Olympic athletes.

But Tsujitani's cheerful face is showing up on Japanese television and in newspapers not because of what he does, but because of what he is refusing to do. After four Olympics in which his finely grooved iron balls were the shots of choice for most medalists, this Tokyo craftsman has told Chinese Olympic officials they will not be receiving any of his products at this summer's Beijing Games.

"This is a personal statement about my pride as a craftsman and how my work is used," said the fit 74-year-old, standing in his home's low-ceilinged garage surrounded by drill bits, the detritus of shorn metal and cardboard boxes filled with polished shots.

"I feel badly for the athletes who won't get to use my shots, but after Tibet I know I'm right," he said last week. "Enough is enough."

With his one-man boycott of the Games, Tsujitani has become a reluctant hero here among those unhappy with the muted response of politicians to China's crackdown on dissent in and near Tibet. Japan's political class has uttered barely a peep of protest, with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda saying only that he would "welcome talks between the concerned parties in a way acceptable to both sides."

The Asahi newspaper dismissed that comment as "tantamount to saying nothing."

Tsujitani is more blunt.

"Japanese politicians are wimps," he said.

The government is squeezed between Japan's self-image as a beacon of democratic values in Asia and its economic interests, which are entwined with China's rise. The deep mutual economic dependency expanded despite the diplomatic freeze of recent years, when Beijing accused Tokyo of soft-pedaling its militarist past and anti-Japanese riots broke out in several Chinese cities in 2005.

Top-level relations have since thawed, even as the Japanese public remains conflicted over whether to treat China as an opportunity or a threat.

Unlike his most recent predecessors, Fukuda has been an advocate of a Beijing-friendly foreign policy, calling China an indispensable partner and nurturing the warming diplomatic mood.