(ATR) The Tokyo 2020 Games can be a "catalyst" for Japan’s economy, according to the city’s governor Yuriko Koike.
The day after the official end of Rio 2016 with the closing ceremony of the Paralympics, Koike spoke to reporters in Barra da Tijuca to look ahead to Japan’s Games in four years time.
Rio de Janeiro’s preparations for the Olympics and Paralympics were affected by the economic crisis in the country, with Brazil’s currency still in a downward spiral.
However, Koike insisted to Around the Rings that hosting the Games could actually help in revitalizing Japan’s economy, as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic plan – Abenomics – which is made up of ‘three arrows’ of fiscal stimulus.
She said: "We are in the third year of the implementation of Abenomics, the policy of our Prime Minister Abe. This implementation has not been completed yet and as we prepare for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we have to consider all aspects of financial planning.
"Therefore I believe the Games can be a catalyst for the economy as well, in the sense that it can serve as the fourth arrow of Abenomics to revitalize Japan’s economy going forward. We must bear this in mind in our economic policy and we should also look beyond 2020. The society beyond 2020 should be considered in terms of new systems as well as deregulation."
Japan is still recovering from the 2008 global financial crisis, when the country’s GDP dropped by almost 6 per cent. The Bank of Japan has already predicted that the Games will lift the country’s economic growth by 0.3 per cent per year through 2018.
Whether the Games provide the financial stimulus organizers hope for, Koike said Tokyo 2020 would be a memorable Games no matter what.
"We have now had two flags handed over," she said. "It seems that now Tokyo’s turn has come. We have four more years but it is only four more years and I have renewed my commitment in the run up to the Games. We will do our utmost to make sure the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games will be a memorable event in the history of the Games."
Written by Christian Radnedgein Rio de Janeiro
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