Organizers estimated that this year’s postponement of the Tokyo Olympics due to the novel coronavirus cost around
200 billion yen ($1.9 billion), the Yomiuri newspaper published on Sunday, citing people involved in the case.
As the coronavirus spread quickly across the globe, the International Olympic Committee and the
Japanese government were forced to put the Games off for a year in March.
Before the postponement, the Games cost 1.35
trillion Yen ($13 billion), the newspaper stated.
In December, after negotiations between the committee, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the central government, the
organizing committee will settle on a breakdown of the responsibility of the delay, the newspaper said.
Asked about the report, a spokesman for the organizers told Reuters only by
text message that the committee is investigating the extra costs associated with the delay.
The postponement costs include payment to workers as well as the implementation of new mechanisms for
refunding fares, but do not include precautions against the spread of the coronavirus, the newspaper said.
The organizers had originally predicted that the delay would cost about 300 billion yen,
but they were able to minimize that amount by simplifying certain activities, the report said.
SOURCE: NNN
