Pyeongchang Olympics group wipes Japan off the map

It looks like some graphic designer was aiming for the gold medal in passive-aggressiveness.

The Dream Programme is an organization created by the Pyeongchang Olympic Committee that gives youths an opportunity to train for the 2018 winter games even though they may not come from a nation that has winter. If young men and women show promise in a particular sport such as figure skating or skiing, then they can attend a 10-day training session on the beautiful South Korean winter landscape.

In the years leading up the the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, they have assisted over 1,500 young people including some with disabilities from 75 warm weather countries. Among them, a handful have progressed enough to have represented their countries in past Olympic Games and other international competitions.

It’s a really fantastic project that both helps to spread interest in the joy of winter sports, and gives kids an opportunity to realize their dreams.

It’s just a shame that this uplifting program’s website apparently is also showing a different kind of dream…

Huh…

For some reason, the entire nation of Japan was wiped off this map. It’s really hard to come up with a rational explanation of why Japan disappeared. Considering its location right next to the Korean Peninsula, it couldn’t have been cropped out…even New Zealand managed to peek in at the bottom.

Its doesn’t seem like an accidental oversight either, since the map’s designer was careful enough to include Melville Island in the arctic circle so as not to offend its zero inhabitants.

Meanwhile, the forgotten souls of the lost nation of Japan cried the following comments into the ether.

“Serious? We’re gone. Hahaha!”
“Well, that’s mature.”
“Very sneaky.”
“That’s like what a kindergartener would do.”
“For the Olympics? Shameful.”
“Oh, I’m so going to tell the IOC on them!”
“This kind of seems like a threat.”

Personally, I’m leaning towards giving the Dream Programme the benefit of the doubt and assuming that this map was taken from some stock image website which, for whatever reason, had deleted the Japanese archipelago.

Or – and I know this is a stretch – maybe the artist really loves Japan and was wishing it a white Christmas by covering the entire thing in a blanket of fresh white snow which unfortunately caused it to blend in with the negative space that represents the oceans.

In that case, we’d like to say thanks and wish that weird map maker a Merry Christmas too!

Source: PyeongChang 2018 Dream Programme, Itai News
Images: SoraNews24

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