Japan Press Weekly

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2013 January 9 - 15 [ARTS AND SPORTS]

Tokyo deletes post-3.11 recovery as one of reasons for Olympic bid

The Tokyo Olympic Bid Committee has deleted “reconstruction” of the areas destroyed by the March 2011 disaster from list of reasons for Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Summer Games.

Instead, the committee is using as a selling point Tokyo’s well-planned infrastructure, economic strength, and safety.

Tokyo’s application file released on January 8 hardly mentions the contribution that can be made to recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake as stated in the previous file.

Tokyo Governor Inose Naoki told the press corps that giving a boost to the affected areas is one of the purposes. However, the file does not include this aim.

The fear that IOC members will be given a negative image of the big quake, the resultant tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear accident has probably led to the elimination of including this reason. The majority of Japanese people still call for the support of reconstruction rather than the Olympics.

Other cities declaring their bid for the 2020 Games are Istanbul and Madrid. The IOC in autumn will decide the host city at a meeting in Buenos Aires.