Tokyo to bid for 2016 Olympics

2006-08-30 10:36

Tokyo - Japan picked Tokyo on Wednesday to bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, giving the capital a head start in the race, half a century after the 1964 games which symbolised the city's rebirth.

The Japanese Olympic Committee voted 33-22 to make Tokyo its candidate to host the country's fourth Olympics over a bid by the cosmopolitan southern port city of Fukuoka.

Japan becomes the first country to settle on a candidate to host the games. It is expected to face stiff competition from possible rivals such as Bangkok, San Francisco, Madrid, Rome and New Delhi.

"Some say Tokyo has very low chances to win in 2016 because the 2008 games will be in Beijing, another Asian city, but we don't agree," said Tsunekazu Takeda, chairperson of the Japanese Olympic Committee.

"Together with Tokyo we will keep up the race until October 2009," when the International Olympic Committee makes its decision, he said.

Some 100 supporters cheered as the decision was announced at a Tokyo hotel where the capital's Governor Shintaro Ishihara smiled and shook hands with officials seated next to him.

Ishihara, a novelist turned outspoken nationalist, is a staunch critic of China and has called for Japan to slash aid immediately to Beijing, host of the 2008 Games, and divert the funds to its own Olympic bid.

Tokyo held Asia's first Olympics in 1964, symbolising Japan's meteoric rise into an economic superpower from the ashes of World War II. Japan was also host to the Winter Olympics at Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.

But unlike the 1964 Games which enjoyed nearly unanimous support, the 2016 bid has vocal critics who say Japan does not need the colossal cost and environmental destruction of another Olympics.

A group of architects and developers has proposed to redevelop two existing 1964 Olympic complexes in the city centre to turn one of them into an 100 000-seat main stadium.

After losing its Summer Games bids twice to emerging Asian neighbours South Korea and China, this time Japan's plans are "strategically crafted, and both are at very high levels," said Yasuhiro Nakamori, an official at the Japanese Olympic Committee.

Without full government backing, Nagoya lost to Seoul by 52-27 for the 1988 games. Japan's second city of Osaka spent $34m campaigning for 2008 only to muster six out of a possible 102 votes.

Fukuoka, some 900km southwest of Tokyo, has developed into a major convention destination and was reportedly offered financial support from US investment bank Goldman Sachs to hold the Olympics.

Fukuoka has already hosted major sporting events such as the 1995 Student Games and the 2001 World Swimming Championships.

But residents also voiced concern about the huge financial cost.

Eight years after its Olympics, Nagano is still saddled with $1.56m annual maintenance costs for its bobsleigh-luge track.

More recently Greece spent some $16.6bn on the Athens 2004 Games, well above the $4.6bn originally expected.

- Reuters