Toyota head resigns from Oly committee

TOKYO, Dec 21, (AP): The head of Toyota Motor Corp stepped down Monday as vice president of the organizing committee for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as organizers acknowledged the cost of hosting the games will be far higher than originally thought.

The committee said that Akio Toyoda is expected to be replaced by the president of Panasonic, Kazuhiro Tsuga.

Organizers said Toyoda may have been concerned about serving on both committees, as the Olympic body is seeking support from the business community. Toyota Motor is a major sponsor of the Olympics. “Mr Toyoda might have tried to sort out his roles,” Tokyo organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto told reporters.

Toyoda said in a statement that he decided to reorganize his roles to intensify his efforts to encourage business support for the 2020 Games. He said he is “looking forward to forging even closer ties between the organizing committee and Japan’s business community.”

Also Monday, Muto said the cost of the games will be much higher than the original estimate of just over 300 billion yen ($2.5 billion), though he did not give a specific figure, saying officials are still sorting out and compiling cost estimates.

Muto denied recent media reports that the latest overall cost estimate has soared to 1.8 trillion yen ($15 billion), saying comparing numbers without specific breakdowns is “inappropriate.”

Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said the increase mainly came from previously unanticipated costs, including 300 billion yen ($2.48 billion) to set up temporary venues, 270 billion yen ($2.23 billion) for renting some venues, 200 billion yen ($1.65 billion) for security, and 180 billion yen ($1.49 billion) for transportation and infrastructure.

Japan’s electronics giant Panasonic employee displays the new heavy duty notebook computer ‘Toughbook CF-20’, which has a detachable display to use as a tablet computer, in Tokyo on Dec 21. The new lightweight Toughbook, weighing only 1.76kg, with fully water, dust, shock and vibration-resistant magnesium alloy body, will go on sale early next

year. (AFP)