Tokyo 2020 Organizers Reduce Budget By $300M To $12.6B

Tokyo 2020 organizers unveiled on Friday a budget of $12.6B for the next Summer Olympics, a $300M reduction from projections earlier this year, and said that they are "targeting more cuts in a bid to reduce the burden on Japanese taxpayers," according to Linda Sieg of REUTERS. Games organizers have been "working to slash costs" after a study last year warned that expenses "could balloon to four times the initial estimate made in the bid process." The IOC is "keen for Tokyo to set a good example by cutting costs in order to attract future candidate cities." Tokyo 2020 CFO Hidemasa Nakamura said, "We want to deliver fantastic Games but at the same time ... we don't want to use any public funds if we can help it." The Tokyo Metropolitan Government accounts for $5.6B of the latest budget and Japan's central government $1.4B, according to the organizers' estimates. Version one of the budget, issued in Dec. '16, was projected at $14B. Version three is due out in Dec. '18 (REUTERS, 12/22).