TOKYO – The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee set up a task
force on Thursday to start dealing with the postponement of the 2020
Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games.
The team held the first meeting two days after the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the postponement of the Games with
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the novel coronavirus spreading worldwide rapidly.
"From now on, we take on an unprecedented challenge," organizing
committee president Yoshiro Mori told some 30 members of the team.
"We are in a race against time," organizing committee chief executive
Toshiro Muto said. "There are so many issues that cannot proceed
unless the new date for the Games is not decided."
Meanwhile, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told Kyodo News that she will
ask the IOC to share the costs incurred by the postponement until
2021.
The governor said that host Tokyo will call on the IOC to "play a
role," Kyodo reported.
Tokyo will "make an estimate promptly," she told Kyodo.
Koike told reporters on Wednesday that Tokyo will have an "enormous
task ahead of us."
"We have problems piled up. But it's better than cancellation," she
added.
Officials said the postponement could cost Japan around 300 billion
yen (2.7 billion dollars), the report said.
Kansai University economics professor emeritus Katsuhiro Miyamoto
estimated the country would have to spend around 640 billion yen on
the delay, he said in a statement.
Tokyo, the government and organizers have been criticized for the
already costly Games.
Before Tuesday's decision to delay the Olympics, officials said Japan
could spend more than 3 trillion yen, far larger than the 734 billion
yen originally estimated when Tokyo was awarded the Games in 2013,
calling for a "compact Olympics."
The Games were originally scheduled to be held from July 24 to August
9 and the Paralympics from August 25 to September 6.
In a telephone press conference on Wednesday, IOC president Thomas
Bach said the Tokyo Games in 2021 will need "sacrifices" as the IOC
aims to find a suitable date next year as soon as possible.
A task force, called "Here We Go" and comprising the Tokyo organizers
and an IOC coordination commission, has also been set up to start
planning for 2021 including finding a new date for the Games.