Swiss cabinet backs $1 bln support for Winter Olympic bid
Tokyo tackles tourist boom with accessible cab
ZURICH, May 23, (RTRS): The Swiss government asked parliament on Wednesday to approve spending of up to 994 million Swiss francs ($1.00 billion) on a bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The Swiss city of Sion is one of seven candidate sites.
The others are Canada’s Calgary, Austria’s Graz, Stockholm, Turkey’s Erzurum, Japan’s Sapporo and an Italian bid involving Cortina d’Ampezzo, Milan and Turin, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said last month.
“Not only in sport, but also in the economy and society, the government expects numerous positive effects from the candidature ‘Sion 2026’,” it said after a cabinet meeting in Bern.
Sion’s candidacy will remain on ice, however, until residents of the canton of Wallis, where the city is situated, vote on whether to approve the bid in a referendum scheduled for next month.
The IOC will invite candidates to bid formally at a session in October, and a host city will be selected in September 2019.
The IOC has simplified the preparation process for Games organisers, reducing costs, increasing the Committee’s contribution and allowing host cities more flexibility in planning for the Olympics and the post-Games use of facilities.
Meanwhile, Tokyo’s taxi industry is undergoing some radical changes as Japan, already dealing with unprecedented levels of tourism, gears up to host two major sporting events in the next 26 months.
More than 28 million tourists visited Japan in 2017 and the government has set a goal of 40 million foreign visitors by 2020, loading more and more pressure on Tokyo’s already stressed transport system.
Toyota, the world’s largest car manufacturer, believes it has at least part of the answer to this problem.
Anyone who has hailed a cab in the Japanese capital is likely to have enjoyed a ride in one of the company’s iconic Comfort sedans, which make up over 70 percent of Tokyo’s taxi fleet.
The car, which famously features an automatic opening door, has been in production for 22 years but in October last year Toyota launched a new model, the ‘JPN Taxi’.
Adoption of the ‘JPN Taxi’, which
has a liquid petroleum gas hybrid engine aimed at lowering carbon emissions, has been gradual but Toyota say 10 percent of all Tokyo’s taxi drivers have made the switch.
By the start of the Olympic Games in July 2020, the aim is for the new model to make up over a third of the fleet as Tokyo looks to make itself more accessible for those with disabilities as well as the country’s ageing
population.
Japan has the world’s highest proportion of elderly people with 27 percent of the population over the age of 65 and Toyota’s new car reflects this changing demographic.
“The very reason why we selected the universal design concept is because Japan is a super-aging society, at a level we do not see in other countries in the world,” chief engineer Hiroshi Kayukawa
told Reuters at Toyota’s head office in Aichi Prefecture.
“We are seeing the cities becoming more and more barrier-free, but we also think public transportation should do more in this direction. That was the whole idea around this concept.”
The back seats of the ‘JPN Taxi’ can be moved and a ramp, neatly tucked away under the seat, can be installed in seconds to accommodate customers in wheelchairs. There are also yellow markings and a light on the floor to aid the visually impaired.
“After the Olympics in Tokyo were decided, we looked into our concept and thought there would be a lot of convenience for tourists as well,” added Kayukawa.
“There is also the potential that this taxi becomes an icon of Japan for foreigners visiting Japan.”
To that end, much thought was given to the choice of colour for the exterior before Toyota selected Koiai, a deep indigo once derived from plant dyes. “It is sometimes known as ‘Japan Blue’,” said Kayukawa, who hopes the new model will become associated with Tokyo much as the black taxi is with London and the yellow cab with New York.
“It just so happens to be the colour of the Olympic logo for Tokyo 2020 so we find that a happy coincidence and we hope that deep indigo becomes the image colour of Japan.”
The make-up of the army of drivers who patrol the streets of Tokyo is also changing. Hinomaru, one of the largest taxi firms in the city, have recently hired 22 foreign drivers in time for next year’s Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Olympic Games.