When the International Olympic Committee and Japan moved in March, the Olympic games in Tokyo on the coming year, the expectations were big. IOC President Thomas Bach, and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed the hope, the games next summer could be the Symbol of the victory of humanity over the Coronavirus. Since then, the target has moved considerably. The new objective is to be the life and sports with the Virus.
Patrick Welter
a correspondent for Economics and policy in Japan, based in Tokyo.
F. A. Z. Facebook Twitter
“Covid-19 is not a threat, it can quickly be wiped out, or will pass,” said Toshiro Muto, the chief of the national preparatory Committee, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Very probably, the mankind will have to live with the Virus for several years. “If the games in Tokyo under these conditions can be realized in the coming year, then you can be a model for other global events, and sporting events,” says Muto. “That would really be a legacy of Tokyo 2020.”
The way to go is still long, and it is completely unclear whether the games will take place in spite of the pandemic at all. The Japanese Olympic athletes celebrated in a modest ceremony, the One-year date before the start of the summer games. The schedule of the competitions in the coming year, the sport arenas and the Olympic village are also secured for 2021. How much is the repeated use of the venues the organizer will cost, according to the words of Mutos is still open. “We are still negotiating the exact dates on which we need the sports facilities,” he says. “The costs are part of these negotiations.”
Not only, therefore, the postponement of the games is a financial adventure with unknown outcome. The costs are unclear, as are the receipts: no one knows how many tourists will ultimately buy Tickets. At the earliest, in the autumn, more precisely in October, hopes the preparatory Committee to have some idea at least about the additional costs.
