Tokyo 2020 Budget Grows by 22 Percent

(ATR) Tokyo 2020, the Organizing Committee of the delayed Olympic and Paralympic Games, unveiled their fifth version of their budget for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games on Tuesday.

The official cost of Tokyo’s rescheduled Olympics and Paralympics has now risen to $15.4 billion, a 22 percent increase from the last budget of $12.6 billion.

Included in the latest iteration are plans to spend $900 million on coronavirus measures in conjunction with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Government of Japan.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games CEO Toshiro Muto said: "We want to build the best possible system by continuing to interact with the relevant organizations of doctors and nurses.

"It's still a big issue for us to secure as many medical staff as we hope for when faced with a situation where private medical institutions are struggling with management because of the coronavirus."

The new figure surpasses version four which was announced a year ago in December 2019. Tokyo 2020 said in a press release that the new figure is based on the agreed allocation of additional costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the Games between Tokyo 2020, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Government of Japan that was announced on Dec. 4.

Compared with the version four OCOG budget, total expenses have increased by $0.9 billion - including $0.3 billion for Paralympic expenses – to a total of $6.7 billion.

The OCOG budget includes $1.2 billion of temporary and overlay facility expenditures, an increase of $0.3 billion over the version four budget, operational expenditures of $1.6 billion, an increase of $0.4 billion, and general affairs and communication expenditures of $0.8 billion, an increase of $0.2 billion.

Including the OCOG budget of $6.7 billion, updated overall Games expenditure will now total $15.4 billion. This comprises the $12.6 billion forecasted in the version four budget, plus the OCOG’s contingency fund of $0.3 billion and the additional costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic of $2.5 billion, including $0.6 billion of additional Paralympic Games costs.

Homepage photo: ATR

Written by Mark Pickering in Tokyo

Twitter: @_MarkPickering

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