The organizing committee for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics reported Wednesday that the total costs for the games will be reduced by about 30 billion yen by simplifying the events in line with their one-year postponement. 

The organizing committee revealed this to the International Olympic Committee during the IOC’s online executive board meeting on the day.

The Tokyo Games have been put off by one year to 2021 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Tokyo committee said that about 15 billion yen will be saved through reviews of temporary items, such as facilities for managing events at competition venues, lighting equipment, spectator seats and ticket sales booths.

The committee also expects to save around 3 billion yen by reviewing its staffing plan and roughly 1 billion yen each by reducing the number of IOC officials coming to the games by 10-15 percent from some 50,000 and by scaling back ornamental items at the athlete village and competition venues.

About 900 million yen will be reduced by reviewing bus and other transportation services for officials related to the games and some 800 million yen by slashing the number of vehicles used for the torch relay and reviewing ornamental goods for celebratory events, according to the report.

But the Tokyo committee’s report does not include a cut in the number of competition events or that of participating athletes.

The committee also stopped short of showing drastic measures to simplify the opening and closing ceremonies for the Tokyo Games, as the IOC opposes the ceremonies being downsized due to the broadcasting rights contract.

As a result, the planned 30-billion-yen cost reductions account for only 2.2 pct of the total Tokyo Games costs of 1.35 trillion yen, shown in the fourth draft of the organizing committee’s budget plan in December last year.

Still, Toshiro Muto, director-general of the organizing committee, said that the cost review has produced results, adding that the committee aims to further reduce expenses as much as possible.

The committee plans to announce the amount of additional costs arising from the one-year postponement, including expenses on measures against the novel coronavirus, by the end of 2020.

JIJI Press