Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games’ eye-watering final bill revealed

Tokyo won the Olympics in 2013, offering a ‘safe pair of hands’ and with a substantial amount of money already in the bank

Tokyo 2020 cost almost double the original figure (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021 after being postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, cost 1.42 trillion yen (£8.5bn), nearly double the figure quoted in the city’s bid for the Games, according to a final budget report.

The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee held its last meeting late Tuesday and is due to disband at the end of the month.

Tokyo won the Olympics in 2013, offering a “safe pair of hands” and with a substantial amount of money already in the bank.

However, costs swelled leading up to the Games, including for the rebuilding the New National Stadium, used for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as track and field events.

Costs also surged in connection with postponing the Games by a year and for measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus when the Games were finally held, without spectators, in 2021.

“In the face of unprecedented difficulties, all the parties concerned worked together tremendously for the success of the Games and for carrying it off safely and securely,” Seiko Hashimoto, the organising committee’s president, told a news conference.

Sapporo, capital of the northernmost island of Hokkaido, is bidding to host the 2030 Winter Games.

Reuters