Tokyo Olympics Final Bill Comes to Japan Government for Such a Huge Amount
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021 after being postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, cost 1.42 trillion yen ($10.4 billion), or Rs 81,320 crore, according to figures cited in the city’s bid for the Games. is almost double. budget report. The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee held its last meeting on Tuesday (June 21) and is due to be dissolved at the end of the month.
Tokyo won the Olympics in 2013, offered a ‘safe pair of hands’ and already had a substantial amount in the bank. However, costs rose until the Games, including the rebuilding of the New National Stadium used for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as track and field events.
The cost also increased in relation to measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus after the Games were postponed by a year and in 2021 when the Games were held without spectators. “Facing unprecedented difficulties, all the parties concerned worked together tremendously. For the success of the Games and to carry it out safely and securely,” Organizing Committee chairman Seiko Hashimoto said at a news conference.
Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido’s northernmost island, is bidding to host the 2030 Winter Games.
The price tag for last summer’s pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics stood at $13 billion, nearly double the initial estimate, with taxpayers accounting for 55% of the bill. https://t.co/1uF2NNqgCE – Nikkei Asia (@NikkeiAsia) June 21, 2022
A study by Oxford University in 2020 said Tokyo was the most expensive Olympics on record. There is an indisputable fact: more than half of the cost was paid for by public money – the government of Tokyo, the national government and other government entities.
In the years leading up to the Olympics, government audits found that the official cost could be twice the stated amount, meaning the public share of the bill could be as much as half. The International Olympic Committee said in its annual report that it contributed approximately $1.9. billion to cover the Tokyo cost.
It is impossible to assess the long-term impact of the Tokyo Olympics, especially in a huge city like the Japanese capital where change is stagnant. The pandemic wiped out any short-term tourism boom. Local sponsors, who paid more than $3 billion to join the Olympics, were not very happy, according to local reports.
(with Reuters inputs)