Reported by one year due to Covid, tainted with scandals, the cost of the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 are, essentially, at the expense of Japanese taxpayers.
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Battled by the Pandemic of Covid-19 and weighed down by a series of scandals, the Olympic and Paralympic Tokyo Games, organized despite a lively opposition from the Japanese, display a dark financial record. Officially established at 1,423.8 billion yen (plus 10 billion euros) on June 21 by the TOKYO 2020 organizing committee, the final invoice of the event organized in the heart of the torrid summer 2021 reaches double the Initial estimate, 55 % of which are the responsibility of Japanese taxpayers.
Unsurprisingly, finances suffered from the postponement of one year, because of the pandemic due to the coronavirus, the Olympic tests initially planned for the summer of 2020. The prevention measures of the COVVI-19, such as screening for athletes cost 246 million euros.
This are added cost overruns. The national stadium, pregnant in particular of the opening and closing ceremonies of the games, cost 1.1 billion euros, or 190 million more than expected. The absence of spectators imposed for health reasons deprived the organizers of 632 million euros expected from the sale of tickets.
On the revenue side, the organizers were able to count on record support of Japanese partners (2.6 billion euros). In addition, they received 351 million euros in insurance for the postponement of competitions, or even 611 million euros in contribution from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Finally, the invoice appears slightly reduced compared to the estimate of December 2020, which was tapped on expenses amounting to 11.9 billion euros. Tokyo 2020 has covered 4.5 billion euros in total costs. The rest is divided between the city of Tokyo, up to 4.2 billion euros and the central government (1.3 billion).
The announcement of the balance sheet was little covered by the Japanese media. The question could however have political consequences. “A large part of the funds used come from taxpayers, but the balance sheet gives no details of the expenses,” said Kiyoshi Abe, from Kwansei Gakuin University. Also the author of the sociology of the Tokyo Olympics. Crisis and celebration in Japan in 2020 (Commons, 2020, not translated), the researcher also deplores the lack of explanation on what the Tokyo Olympics, organized in full pandemic, really brought to society.
“The city of Tokyo will have to assess its expenses precisely and provide a clear explanation to the inhabitants of the capital as well as the country”, adds Naofumi Masumoto, specialist in Olympic studies at the Metropolitan University of Tokyo.
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