COVID-19 Impact: Tokyo Olympics postponement to cost Japan $2.8 billion

The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics from 2020 to 2021 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic is going to cost Japanese a whopping $2.8 billion, the organising committee said on Friday.

The Summer Olympics was scheduled to be held in Tokyo in July this year but it had to be pushed back for the first time in its 124-year modern history due to the Covid-19 crisis which severely impacted the sporting calendar this year.

Tokyo metropolitan government is expected to pay 120 billion yen, the organising committee 103 billion yen and the Japanese government 71 billion yen, organisers said.

The IOC has previously said it will contribute $650 million towards covering postponement costs. This is separate from the costs announced by Japanese organisers on Friday.

“Tokyo’s costs are Tokyo’s costs. Tokyo 2020’s (allocation) is revenue that we can secure.

“Within this revenue we have additional sponsorship



that we have requested from partners and we also have insurance,” Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said.

Tokyo 2020 is also falling back on a contingency fund of 27 billion yen detailed in last year’s budget to cover costs.

The last official budget given by the organising committee in December 2019, months before the Games were postponed, was $12.6 billion.

Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori added that the IOC had agreed to waive any additional royalties accrued by new sponsorship deals secured by the organising committee.

“I had a video conference last night with IOC President Bach,” said Mori, who was wearing a red and white mask with the words ‘One Team’ on the side, the slogan of the successful Japanese rugby team during last year’s World Cup.

“President Bach expressed his strong determination that the IOC and us should work as one team and cooperate to ensure the success of the Games.”