Japan Sports Minister Hakubun Shimomura said that Tokyo's "sparkling" new National Stadium, the centerpiece for the 2020 Olympic Games and 2019 Rugby World Cup, "should ditch its plan for a retractable roof to save money," according to Patrick Johnston of REUTERS. Shimomura added that he wanted around 35% of the seats at the 80,000-seat stadium "to be temporary ones in another cost-cutting measure and also to shorten construction time" at the $1.42B facility. Shimomura also called on the local government to contribute $417.82M but Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe said that local residents and the metropolitan assembly "needed to be convinced first." Rising labor and construction costs have forced Tokyo to "rethink its Olympic plans." The changes mean they will "fail to meet an existing commitment" that they would host a majority of Olympic events within 8km (5 miles) of the Games village (REUTERS, 5/18). The AFP reported Masuzoe has "compared the government to the Japanese
Imperial Army during World War II" after being asked to pay more than HK$400M ($51.61M) toward the cost of the 2020 Olympic stadium. Shimomura's decision to lobby Tokyo for almost 30% of the estimated total
construction bill of $1.4B for the new National Stadium "enraged
Masuzoe, who blasted the government as 'irresponsible' for making the demand." Masuzoe: "The figure being mentioned
is around 50 billion yen ($418M). Up until now there has been absolutely no
communication about this. It is irresponsible because we have to think
of the taxpayers." Masuzoe added, "It's irresponsible to keep
repeating 'we can build it.' But that's just like the Japanese Imperial
Army during the war saying 'we're winning, we're winning' -- when in
fact we were losing" (AFP, 5/18).
