Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said on Wednesday that "now was the last chance to take steps to rein in soaring costs for the city's 2020 Olympics," projected to cost 3T yen ($29B) -- over four times higher than planned, according to Lies & Miyazaki of REUTERS. Koike said that the proposed changes -- "which include moving rowing and canoeing" some 400km north of Tokyo -- "remain on the table" to ensure that the Games do not leave a "legacy of debt." Koike: "As the Games approach, costs will rise even more than now. As choices disappear, we will be asked to pay still more. Now is our last chance." For now, "the city is zeroing in on three of the most expensive venues -- for volleyball, swimming and rowing/canoeing -- although Koike noted the budget review was ongoing" (REUTERS, 10/12).
MIYAGI GOVERNOR CONFIDENT: In Tokyo, Andrew McKirdy reported Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai "is confident that his prefecture is capable of hosting rowing and canoe sprint events" at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics despite a "negative" meeting with the organizing committee. Murai: "The organizing committee gave me a list of nine reasons why they think it’s difficult to use Naganuma. I listened, but I think that if we all make the effort we can overcome it." Murai struck a "bullish tone." He said, "The feeling I got today from the organizing committee was a negative one, that it would be impossible. But we managed to recover from the Great East Japan Earthquake -- of course with some help from the government -- in just 5½ years. So you can’t tell me that we’re not capable of hosting one Olympic event four years from now" (JAPAN TIMES, 10/12).
POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE: KYODO reported the Japan Canoe Federation said that it will demand that rowing/canoe sprint events be held in neighboring Saitama Prefecture during the 2020 Tokyo Games "if the currently planned venue in Tokyo is scrapped." Naganuma rowing course in Tome in Miyagi Prefecture -- more than 300km from the capital in one of the prefectures hit hardest by the March '11 earthquake and tsunami -- has been proposed by Tokyo as a "possible alternative." JCF VP Shoken Narita said, "If we hold the other event (canoe sprint) so far away, that'll split the organizers as well as delegations. We have small international and domestic federations and that'll cause (operating) difficulties." The JCF will push for Saiko Doman Green Park in Toda, Saitama Prefecture, as its compromise choice (KYODO, 10/12).
