Tokyo 2020 will reportedly reveal next week that it has been "unable to find cost savings for the Olympics and Paralympics," with the budget to remain at 1.35T yen (about $11.9B), the same as outlined in its second budget, according to KYODO. According to organizing committee sources, even after "working on identifying cost-cutting measures" with the IOC, operating costs related to issues such as transport mean that "the best that Tokyo can do is to maintain the current spending levels, having been unable to find significant savings." Organizers are expected to release the third version of the operating budget on Dec. 21 (KYODO, 12/14).
AGGREKO JOINS THE FOLD: The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee announced Aggreko Events Services Japan as an official supporter, the third domestic tier of the Tokyo 2020 sponsorship program. The company was attributed the category "Temporary Electricity Generation." The number of Tokyo 2020 domestic partners is now 58, including 15 gold partners, 30 official partners and 13 official supporters (Tokyo 2020).
'ON THE RIGHT TRACK': In Tokyo, Kaz Nagatsuka reported Japan’s men’s basketball team is "on the right track" to earn a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, FIBA task force co-Chair Ingo Weiss said. Weiss stressed that the Japan Basketball Association has "fully lived up to the expectations" of the Japan 2024 taskforce, which was formed in the wake of the JBA’s Nov. '14 suspension for poor governance. One of the "biggest changes to come" as a result of the taskforce was a merger of the two top men’s leagues -- the National Basketball League and bj-league -- into the B. League, which launched in '16. Another was the development of the men’s national team, which has not competed at the Olympics since the Montreal 1976 Games (JAPAN TIMES, 12/16).
