Tokyo to pay for all temporary Olympic facilities in other prefectures

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said Thursday that the metropolitan government will shoulder all costs to develop temporary facilities for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in seven prefectures outside the Japanese capital, Japan''s Jiji Press reported.

Koike unveiled the plan in a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Koike said that the metropolitan government "broadly plans to fully pay for temporary facilities in the other prefectures," including neighboring Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, that will host some events in the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Abe welcomed the plan, Koike said, adding that the metropolitan government is scrutinising actual costs.

In December last year, the organising committee for the 2020 Tokyo Games requested the metropolitan government and governments of the seven prefectures cover some 200 billion yen (about US$1.7 billion) of the total costs of 280 billion yen (about US$ 2.4 billion) to develop temporary facilities.

The committee estimates the temporary facility development will cost the seven prefectures some 50 billion yen (about US$439.7 million).

Koike hammered out the plan to shoulder the non-Tokyo facility costs in the wake of the heads of the seven prefectures expressing displeasure at her failure to present a broad framework on sharing the facility costs by mid-March as initially announced.

On the central government side, Abe had asked Tamayo Marukawa, minister in charge of the Tokyo Games, to broker a cost-sharing deal between the seven local governments and the organising committee, which has prime funding responsibility for hosting the quadrennial world events.

During their meeting Thursday, Koike and Abe also agreed that the metropolitan government and the state will split half of the costs to host the Paralympics. The remainder will be covered by the committee.

Abe affirmed his government''s spending for ensuring security around Tokyo Games venues and for antidoping measures, the Tokyo chief noted. -- Bernama