QUESTIONS CONTINUE TO SURROUND NAGANO AS OLYMPICS NEAR

          While Nagano won the bid to host the '98 Olympics
     "partly by promising to shower the event with cash and to
     pay the way of every athlete ... much of that promised
     windfall has since vanished, and the result may leave
     visitors scratching their heads about what the organizers
     envisioned when planning these Winter Games," according to
     David Hamilton in today's WALL STREET JOURNAL.  Hamilton:
     "For a variety of reasons financial and political, the
     torrent of money Nagano pledged to spend luring athletes and
     spectators ... has been scaled way back or redirected. ...
     Effectively, the Nagano organizers are building an Olympics
     designed to benefit Nagano long term -- a time honored
     Olympics tradition, but one that this city appears to be
     taking to new extremes."  Hamilton adds that hockey and
     skating arenas "are so small that spectators will be crammed
     together on temporary seating.  At most venues, broadcast
     facilities are minimal."  Hamilton also writes that Olympics
     officials "admit that they're a little worried what the
     world will think of Japan after the Games."  NAOC Deputy
     Manager for Sports Facilities Hiroshi Higuchi: "We are
     concerned about the impression of visitors from the rest of
     the world -- what they will feel about the facilities when
     they see temporary seatings and so forth" (WSJ, 7/11).