Amid rumors of bribe-taking sponsorship for last year's Olympic Games, hospitals fighting COVID-19 infection and a shortage of hospital beds and Ukrainians fleeing Russian invasion hoping to make Japan a permanent home, the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, north of Tokyo in the city of Kasukabe in Saitama, helps protect the local area and bolster Tokyo's defenses from local rivers and the Edogawa from bursting their banks at a time of worsening climate change.