Tokyo Organizing Committee President Yoshiro Mori said that the IOC "may well welcome Japan's decision to scrap and completely revise plans for its controversial National Stadium since the move will save money," according to Elaine Lies of REUTERS. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said last week that "he had decided to take the stadium plans back to square one." The sudden decision over the stadium "took many by surprise and became the latest in a series of broken promises connected to the event." But Mori said that substantial savings on the stadium -- projected to cost some $2B, nearly twice original estimates -- "fit right in to the IOC's new cost-cutting policy, Agenda 2020." Mori acknowledged that "the futuristic stadium design had probably helped Tokyo beat off Istanbul and Madrid to be awarded the Games in 2013 but that the IOC was likely to approve the revised plans at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur later this month" (REUTERS, 7/22). In Hong Kong, Kevin Rafferty opined "something stinks here." Why "was Abe involved?" He "is not a member of Japan's Olympic committee." Until a few weeks ago, the government "was proclaiming that it would stick by the existing design, citing time pressures and Japan's credibility." The cancellation of the stadium "smacks of cheap politicking, with conjuror Abe facing growing unpopularity and trying to find a new trick to bemuse the people." There "are serious questions" to be asked. Among them: "how will the government ensure that the new design will not suffer similarly from cost overruns?" What precisely "will be the timetable and competition for the new design?" Who "is running the show now, the Tokyo Olympic Organising Committee or Abe, and how will compensation to British architect Zaha Hadid affect the total bill?" (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 7/22).
