Japan Govt Already Spends 172.5 B. Yen on 2020 Games

October 30, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government said Tuesday that it spent 172.5 billion yen on projects directly related to preparing and running the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics over the five years to March this year.

The government examined its 2020 Games-related spending after the Board of Audit of Japan released estimates early this month that the government has already spent more than 800 billion yen.

The day's announcement is expected to fuel concerns about the games-related costs, as the new figure exceeds the amount of 150 billion yen that the government has promised to shoulder.

The board asked the government's Headquarters for the Promotion of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games to closely examine the relevance of state-financed projects to the games.

In response, the government grouped the projects into three--those closely related to the preparations and operations of the games, those whose direct contributions to the games are hard to assess in value and those with relatively low relevance.

The first category with high relevance has 53 projects worth 172.5 billion yen in total, including the one to build the new National Stadium, the main venue of the 2020 Games.

A total of 208 projects worth 546.1 billion yen, including those to build roads and replace electric poles with underground cables, are in the second group whose direct contributions are hard to assess.

Twenty-nine projects worth 82.6 billion yen are considered to have relatively low relevance. Among them is the one to improve the accuracy of weather information.

In December last year, the Tokyo Games organizing committee said the total games costs would reach 1.35 trillion yen.

At a press conference after a cabinet meeting, Yoshitaka Sakurada, minister for the Tokyo Games, said the government will disclose the amount of its game-related spending as well as the budget from now on.

The government "will strive to provide a detailed explanation in order to obtain the public's understanding," Sakurada said. Jiji Press