Prefectures spurn Tokyo 2020 costs

TOKYO: Prefectural and municipal governments that will host the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games jointly warned the organising committee and Tokyo metropolitan government Monday not to shift policy and force local governments to shoulder some of the costs of constructing related facilities.

Leaders of 10 local governments — six prefectures including Kanagawa, Miyagi and Shizuoka and four major cities near Tokyo — submitted a letter to Yoshiro Mori, president of the 2020 Olympic organising committee, and Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike calling on them to reaffirm a policy, adopted in 2013 that the committee would cover expenditures for the construction of temporary facilities.

The letter follows an agreement reached by the committee and the Tokyo government in April to review the policy. A research team for the metropolitan government submitted a proposal to Koike in September calling for regional municipalities that will host the games to partially shoulder costs for the construction of temporary facilities to be built outside Tokyo.

“There is a growing sense of unease among municipality organisations,” the letter said.

The organizing committee said last week that total costs for the games are estimated from 1.6 trillion (500 billion baht) to 1.8 trillion yen. The organising committee envisions shouldering 500 billion yen of the costs, with the rest covered by the Tokyo, central and regional governments.

The 10 local governments also include Saitama and Chiba prefectures, Hokkaido and the cities of Sapporo, Saitama, Chiba and Yokohama.