Tokyo 2020 Olympics: domestic sponsorships up, budget same

Organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics say they have secured another $1 million in domestic sponsorships and that the operating budget for the games remains at $5.6 billion.

The organizing committee, announcing its third version of the operating budget, said Friday "as with the previous version, the OCOG budget remains balanced and fully privately financed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), sponsors, licensing and ticket revenues" and includes the cost of the Paralympic Games.

It said domestic sponsor revenues had increased since its last budget to $3 billion.

"With less than 600 days to go until the games, we are finally entering a fully-fledged implementation phase," Tokyo 2020 President Toshiro Muto said. "As many aspects of the games have become more detailed, Tokyo 2020 has seen increases in some new areas but has successfully reduced expenditures in other areas, resulting in the updated budget remaining the same as the previous version."

The total cost of the Olympics, however, including $7 billion to be spent by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japanese government, is $12.6 billion. Tokyo's winning bid in 2013 projected overall Olympics costs of 829 billion yen ($7.3 billion).

Earlier this month, IOC President Thomas Bach and other IOC members said Tokyo was the best prepared host city in memory.

But Australian John Coates, the head of an IOC inspection team, said then that Tokyo's summer heat was a growing concern.

Organizers are proposing to start the marathon between 5:30-6 a.m., and have moved up morning rugby matches by 90 minutes to play in the cooler air.

Mountain biking will be contested later in the afternoon for the same reason.

Tokyo's privately-funded operating budget relies most on domestic sponsorship sales, and Coates and Bach said the enthusiasm of Japanese companies had helped break all records.

Also on Friday, the organizing committee said that the concept behind the Paralympic torch relay to be held after the Summer Games would be "Share Your Light."

It said the slogan expresses Tokyo 2020's goal of achieving a "fully-inclusive society," as well as to "communicate the spirit and values of the Paralympics."

The Paralympic torch relay will be held over seven days between the closing ceremony of the Summer Games on Aug. 9 and the Paralympics opening ceremony on Aug. 25. The route will go mainly through Tokyo and its nearby prefectures of Chiba, Saitama and Shizuoka, all hosts of Paralympic events.