make a splash 復習

2020年の東京オリンピックに向けて都営地下鉄の各駅でトイレの整備が進められています。

Tokyo subway stations to get luxury lavatories before Olympics

Determined to make a splash for the 2020 Olympics, the Tokyo metropolitan government is to give foreign visitors a warm welcome by installing multifunction toilet seats at all the subway stations it operates.

All stations on the capital’s Toei Subway lines are to receive toilet seats with built-in bidets under plans revealed at the Tokyo metropolitan assembly on Oct. 5 in response to a question from an assembly member.

“We aim to install the toilet seat at all of the stations as soon as possible,” said Hitoshi Yamate, who heads the metropolitan government’s Bureau of Transportation.

Installation of the toilet seat in relatively-larger compartments for disabled and pregnant users is under way in all of the 101 stations independently managed by the metropolitan government, but it has yet to install it in cubicles for the general public.

The metropolitan government said that it will install the toilet seat for the general public mainly at the stations on the Oedo Line in this fiscal year, and is planning to increase the budgets for the full-scale installation from the next fiscal year.

The plan is aimed at improving conveniences and amenities for the anticipated influx of overseas visitors in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as older people.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201610060060.html

今回取り上げる表現は “make a splash” です。『ライトハウス英和辞典』（第5版　研究社）には “make (create) (quite) a splash” で「（略式）世間をあっと言わせる、大評判をとる」と載っておりました。LDOCEには “to do something that gets a lot of public attention” と定義されており、注目は注目でもpublicなものであるということが重要になるかと思われます。“make a splash”を直訳のように捉えると、水しぶきをはね上げるイメージなので、その音で人々がはっとし、目を向けるというイメージからこのような意味になったのかなと感じました。

この表現は過去にも取り上げられておりました。（aqua）
make a splash - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から
make a splash #2 - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から
splash #2 - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から
make/cause a splash - 田邉祐司ゼミ 常時英心：言葉の森から