Japanese Government Shares Olympic Expenses

(ATR) The Japanese government announced that it had budgeted $2.02 billion for spending on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, but only a limited amount constitutes part of government spending in the version three budget.

Yoshitaka Sakurada, Minister for the Olympics and Paralympics, presented the budgetary figure on Jan. 29 to journalists. The figure represents spending from the fiscal year 2013 through the fiscal year 2019. A majority of the budget constitutes funding for developing athletes ahead of Tokyo 2020, according to NHK.

"In order to realize the best games within limited budget and limited time, we would like to implement the policies efficiently and effectively, and also we would like to continue efforts reducing cost as much as possible," Sakurada was quoted as saying by NHK.

In the Tokyo 2020 version three budget, the national government's part is $1.4 billion. A spokesperson for Sakurada’s office told Around the Rings that the $2.02 billion figure does not change the national government’s share or the overall budget.

"There is also no change about the total amount of...the [version three] budget which [Tokyo] 2020 announced in December last year," the spokesperson added.

Since the Rio 2016 Olympics Tokyo has had to deal with questions of a rising budget. Last year, the Japanese board of audits released a report saying that government spending for the Olympics had surpassed $7 billion in spending since 2013, which equaled the total projected cost of the Olympics in the Tokyo 2020 bid book.

Both Tokyo 2020 and the IOC questioned the report saying that some projects being explored by the national government as part of the Olympics were not pertinent to staging the event. Government spending split between the national government and Tokyo Metropolitan Government ($5.6 billion) is budgeted for $7 billion. Tokyo 2020 is on the hook for $5.6 billion for an overall budget of $12.6 billion.

After taking office as Olympics and Paralympics Minister, Sakurada promised to be transparent about government spending for Tokyo 2020. However, he dodged budgetary questions in an interview with ATR.

Tokyo 2020 spokesperson Masa Takaya told ATR that the budgetary figures announced "do not imply any impact" on the overall budget for the Games.

"Out of the total of $2.02 billion of Olympic- and Paralympic-related expenses that was announced by the national government this time, expenses directly related to the hosting the Games total $605.4 million."

Those expenses directly related to hosting the Games include a grant given to the Japan Sports Council to operate the National Stadium being built for Tokyo 2020, and Paralympic Games expenses.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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