The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will now be costing the Japanese national government an estimated 801.1 billion yen ($7.03 billion USD), rocketing original estimates up by more than 7 times.
Per a report in Asian news source Mainichi, the Japanese Board of Audit based its latest cost approximation on data obtained from government ministries and agencies and covers 70 initiatives in 15 areas. The cost figures included categories such as ‘heat countermeasures and initiatives for the environment’, as well as ‘security improvements.’ Overall, a total of 286 programs compose the ballooning 801.01 billion yen figure.
The report also warned that, ‘if spending in later fiscal years and expenditures by other local governments concerned are included, the total money needed is likely to land more around the 3 trillion yen mark.’
The last edition of the Summer Olympic Games in Rio also faced budget issues, with the overall budget hitting £2.38 billion ($3.6 billion/€3.2 billion) before organizers were forced to slash spending at the last-minute. The opening and closing ceremonies were performed on a smaller scale, while the volunteer force was reduced by 10,000.
Oml, IOC needs to do something about how much the games cost nowadays. It’s not sustainable