The Rio Olympics and all the controversies associated with it are still a week away, and already there are troubling reports concerning the budget of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Yoshiro Mori, President of the Tokyo games organizing committee, said building costs for seven planned Olympic venues have risen by nearly $2 billion from the initial estimated costs of $690 million.
Mori said the original figures were the result of sloppy calculations which he blamed on the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Japanese Olympic Committee.
The organizing committee hasn’t disclosed an official estimate of the overall costs but has acknowledged it will be considerably higher than the $3.5 billion that was forecast in the bid.
This is not the only issue of concern regarding the 2020 games. Much like the 2016 Olympics before them, the Tokyo games have also been plagued by scandal. There have been charges of bribery against the planning committee for sending money to International Olympic Committee members during the bidding process, and also allegations of plagiarism in the Olympic logo development process.
In spite of these budget issues for Tokyo, it is not all doom and gloom coming out of Japan. Organizers also said they have already cut proposed costs by some $2 billion by electing to use existing facilities instead of building new ones for 2020.
[AP]
