Japan scraps costly Tokyo stadium plan
Print Edition
JAPAN scrapped the design of the Olympic stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Games because of soaring costs yesterday and said it will reopen bidding for a new plan, in a stunning reversal that leaves the 2019 Rugby World Cup without a main venue.
“We have decided to go back to the start on the Tokyo Olympics-Paralympics stadium plan, and start over from zero,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters after a meeting with Yoshiro Mori, chairman of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee. “The cost has ballooned just too much.”
The government has been under mounting criticism as the estimated cost of the new National Stadium rose to 252 billion yen (US$2 billion), nearly twice as much as the initial estimate of 130 billion yen.
Abe said he secured the consent of Mori, a former prime minister, and instructed the sports and Olympics ministers to immediately prepare a process to choose a new stadium plan. “I have been listening to the voices of the people and the athletes for about a month now, thinking about the possibility of a review,” Abe said. “We will minimize the cost as much as we can and make one that is best and realistic.”
He said the stadium won’t be completed in time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the first in Asia. The new 80,000-seat stadium had been scheduled to serve as the showpiece venue for the rugby tournament, hosting the opening game, semifinals and final.
World Rugby, the sport’s international governing body, said it was “extremely disappointed”. It said it is seeking detailed clarification from the organizing committee and will consider other options.
The leading candidate for an alternate main venue is the 72,000-seat International Stadium in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo. The stadium, which hosted the 2002 soccer World Cup final, was one of 11 other venues selected for the tournament.
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