Japanese say Olympic Games was ‘waste of money’ as budget blowout rankles a year later
- An audit showed that costs of hosting the Olympics and Paralympics were 20 per cent higher than estimates by the organising committee in June
- Netizens continue to slam authorities for budget, bribery issues and the debate has Sapporo rethinking its bid to host the 2030 Winter games
“Of course I am angry, but this comes as no surprise to me at all,” said Jun Oenoki, a founding member of the Cancel the 2020 Olympic Disaster group, which was set up shortly after the International Olympic Committee announced in September 2013 that Tokyo had won the campaign to host the 2020 games.
“No Olympics in the past has stuck to the budget that was originally set by organisers and it was completely obvious that Tokyo would not be able to do everything it said it would for the budget they announced,” he said.
On local and social media, many Japanese citizens have slammed the expenditure and efforts to conceal the true scale of the outlay.
“Sure enough, what everyone was worried about became reality,” said one message on the Fuji TV website. “Didn’t they say the games would be ‘compact’ and the costs would not increase?
“These figures do not even cover the huge costs associated with maintaining and managing all the new facilities that were built and there is no mention of responsibility at all,” the message added. “Someone has to declare that the Olympics should never be held in Japan again.”
