Japan's trade show association is "stepping up calls for Tokyo to abandon plans to transform the country's largest exhibition hall into the media center" for the 2020 Olympics, warning the industry could lose as much as $12B, according to Chris Gallagher of REUTERS. The Japan Exhibition Association (JEXA) said that it "submitted a petition with more than 80,000 signatures to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike last week demanding a revision to the plan, and was ready to call on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa next." The closure of the Tokyo Big Sight convention center from April-Oct. '20 would "cause the cancellation or shrinking of 170 exhibitions regularly held during those months" and 1.3T yen ($11.5B) in lost revenue, according to JEXA estimates, and the "damage could last even longer." JEXA Chair Tadao Ishizumi said, "We're worried a lot of exhibitors will move to places like China, Korea, Singapore and the U.S., and they might not return." In the petition, JEXA proposed that a media center "be built elsewhere or that Tokyo construct a temporary convention center of the same capacity as Big Sight" (REUTERS, 1/26).
OPENING CEREMONY: KYODO reported 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee President Yoshiro Mori said Wednesday that a panel to compile the concept of the Games' opening ceremony "will be set up shortly." He also said that the route for the torch relay preceding the multisport event "will be decided under the premise that it will go through all 47 prefectures of Japan." The former Japanese PM added that the panel for the opening ceremony "will include members well-versed in various fields such as history, sports, culture and music" (KYODO, 1/26).
