The first commissioner of the newly established Japan Sports Agency, Daichi Suzuki, has a wide remit, including overseeing the building of the new national stadium -- the problem-plagued centerpiece for Tokyo 2020. The 1988 Seoul Olympic 100m backstroke Gold Medalist is also charged with boosting the business of sport in Japan, using it to improve the nation's health, and increase the number of Japanese Olympic medalists. As the head of the JSA, established in October, Suzuki will have to coordinate the sport-related initiatives of four of Japan's most powerful ministries, which are renowned for in-fighting. The 120-staff JSA will come under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology (MEXT).
FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE: Hakubun Shimomura resigned as minister and head of the MEXT in September, and returned half his salary from the previous six months to atone for the Olympic stadium fiasco, which saw the scrapping of the original design after the projected cost ballooned to 252B yen ($2B). "There was a lack of communication last time between all the parties involved. This time, we are meeting and discussing the plans regularly," said Suzuki in response to a question from SBD Global about how he plans to avoid a repeat of previous problems. "Everybody has agreed to work closely together, but issues will arise from here on in." In addition to the ministries, the JSA will have to consult with the Japan Sports Council, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and new Olympics Minister Toshiaki Endo, on a fresh design for the stadium. The lack of a single entity or person with final responsibility for the stadium was widely seen as a cause of the budget miscalculations for the initial design. The JSA also set targets of "about 14" Japanese medals at the Rio Olympics and "20 to 33" for Tokyo 2020, as well as 10 and 22 golds for the two respective Paralympics.
Gavin Blair is a writer in Tokyo.
