Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said on Thursday that "the metropolitan government will in principle bear all the costs of temporary facilities for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games to be built outside the capital," according to KYODO. Following a meeting with PM Shinzo Abe, Koike also said that the two sides "agreed to seek a framework" under which the Games' organizing committee "will shoulder half of the costs for holding the Paralympics, and the other half will be equally shared by the central and Tokyo governments." The new plan emerged "amid reluctance by other local governments" to take on the costs of building temporary facilities in their prefectures. Asked whether Tokyo will shoulder all the costs, Koike said, "Although we are still closely examining everything, we are heading in that direction." The costs to build temporary facilities in six prefectures, excluding Tokyo, are now estimated to reach 43.8B yen ($384.4M). After hearing Tokyo's decision, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga "welcomed the move," saying that he hopes the preparations for the Games "would make progress" (KYODO, 5/11).
'GREATLY ENCOURAGED': The BBC reported the IPC is "greatly encouraged" by the progress being made by the organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Games. The governing body completed a review in the Japanese capital on Thursday. IPC CEO Xavier Gonzalez said, "The level of interest and awareness in the Games is like nothing we have experienced with three years still to go" (BBC, 5/11).
