The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games could cost Japanese small businesses $16B "in lost sales and permanently drive Asia’s trade fair participants to China, an exhibition industry body has warned," according to Leo Lewis of the FINANCIAL TIMES. The "red flag" has been raised as Japan is battling to retain its status as the region’s "second-biggest trade-show market" after China. The "increasingly embittered outcry," which includes a 67,000-strong petition signed by Japanese trade exhibitors and related groups, centers on the Olympic organizing committee’s plans for Tokyo Big Sight -- "the capital’s largest and most important exhibition center." With the rising costs of hosting the Tokyo Olympics already an "uncomfortable political issue," the organizers "opted to save money by commandeering Big Sight to serve as the media centre for the games -- rendering it unavailable for trade fairs for almost seven months of 2020." According to the Japan Exhibition Association, the plan "will force the cancellation of some 170 exhibitions and affect more than 50,000 exhibitors" (FT, 8/30). BLOOMBERG's Chris Cooper wrote Ken Kitaura, who works in the planning and public relations department at Big Sight, said that "the exhibition site is pushing for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to modify the current plan, which would close Big Sight from April through October, to allow for some exhibitions to continue during the Games" (BLOOMBERG, 8/29).
