Total cost of postponed Tokyo Olympics now almost $16bn

The postponement led Tokyo organisers to spend an additional 294 billion yen, including 96 billion yen earmarked for coronavirus counter-measures.

The latest figure was up from the previous estimate of 1.35 trillion yen unveiled before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and local organisers decided in March to delay the Games by one year due to the spread of the coronavirus.

In October, organisers unveiled cost reductions of $280 million through more than 50 items of simplification and optimisation, which includes cutting the number of visiting officials, the number of transportation services and local organisers’ office space.

Of the 1.64 trillion yen, the organising committee will cover 721 billion yen, the Tokyo City Government 702 billion yen and the central government 221 billion yen.

The Olympics are now scheduled to be held between July 23 and Aug. 8, 2021, followed by the Paralympics from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5, 2021.

Critics argued Japan could end up spending more than three trillion yen, far larger than the 734 billion yen originally estimated when the Japanese capital was bidding for the 2020 Games in 2013, calling for a “compact Olympics”.

Amid ballooning costs and recent surges of new coronavirus infections in Japan, Europe and the U.S., the Japanese public is sceptical about the holding of the Tokyo Games.

According to a survey conducted last week by broadcaster NHK, 32 per cent of those polled said the Olympics should be cancelled, while 27 per cent said they should be staged as scheduled and 31 per cent favoured a further postponement.

Japan has so far avoided a virus outbreak on the scale seen in Europe and the U.S.

However, the total number of COVID-19 related deaths exceeded 3,000 on Tuesday with about 204,000 known infections. (dpa/NAN)