Criticism mounts over stadium cost for 2020 Tokyo Olympics

The barrel needs to be greased, and so it will be greased.

I made this alternative proposal to enter the debate. Please have a look at the link and like it if you think it is a good idea. Thanks

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tokyo2020-Olympic-Stadium-Proposal/381935252005134

I wonder how many of Education and Sports Minister Hakubun Shimomura's friends are getting huge pay days over this. I'm not sure why I am so angered by this story, but i think it goes to show the utter hubris of politicians, and their utter contempt for us their constituents. From the get go, I was against Tokyo's bid, and was chagrined to see large posters touting Tokyo 2020 go up in our school. i kept telling my students that this would happen and low and behold it has. Interestingly enough, a few who have stayed and moved onto the advanced course have come back and told me, I was right, not that it makes any difference now.

I predict the final cost to be between 350 and 400 billion.

@MarkX "I'm not sure why I am so angered by this story..." Because those of us who have lived here long term are fronting the bill with our taxes for something that will hardly see use after the Olympics has finished?

Places like this are utterly disgusting. And the people organzing its construction even more so.

I still cannot believe with all the evidence there is, showing China's and Russia's empty stadiums, that Japan would through with having the limited space. A part of me hoped that Japan would actually be the country to find a feasible way to make the infrastructure worth it well after the games are done, but the stadium is 3 times more expensive than the other ones!

“I’m aware that many people are opposed to the plan, as public polls show,” he told a parliamentary committee, promising to explain the increase to the public.

Such huge projects should be submitted to vote to the population.

Direct democracy, like in Switzerland.

If the population says yes, go ahead. Otherwise, pay it with your own money, not mine.

The Olympic Games are a megalomaniac and futile project from Abe.

The government and Abe don't care what the population wants.

Here is what happened in Nagano, as a result of the Winter Olympics in 1998:

The full cost of the Nagano Winter Olympics will never be known as the documents accounting for money spent on the Olympic bid were burnt on the orders of the Olympic Committee vice-secretary general, Sumikazu Yamaguchi.

Yet it is clear that it went vastly over budget, with new infrastructure to make the Games work in this small Japanese city costing up to A$9.4 billion. As a result, Nagano fell into recession, with the debt on Olympic projects roughly A$28,000 per family and growing. It is estimated that these debts will take until 2015 to pay off. The Olympic venues alone cost A$20.6 million per year in upkeep, and their rental income brings only one-tenth of that amount.

Although Nagano is working hard to stop the Olympic venues turning into rotting white elephants, the cost of their upkeep is not easy for the city's finances. Today it still costs A$2.3 million a year alone to maintain the M-Wave, where local school children take skating lessons on a high-speed 400-metre rink in winter. The installation of a high-speed bullet train during the Olympics also posed problems for the local hotel industry as more skiers came on day trips rather than spending the night and locals are more inclined to go on shopping days to larger cities.

But the owners of the construction companies that built the Olympic infrastructure and a certain Mr Tsutsumi had a field day.

Who's getting the back handers for the Tokyo Olympics?

Anyone who has lived in Japan for more than three years, and understands Japanese, knows that the yakuza run Japan. This project is for them, first and foremost.

It's corruption, plain and simple for all to see.

“I’m aware that many people are opposed to the plan, as public polls show,” he told a parliamentary committee, promising to explain the increase to the public. It's great that he is aware, the problem is that he doesn't care. Explaining it to the public will be: "It costs more because of many factors, too bad." It's worth noting that the most expensive stadium ever built was $1.6 billion (MetLife in New Jersey); I tend to agree with Harry_Gatto; I'm going to put my guess in at ¥340 billion. Also, How many ministers does this travesty need?

This is Tokyo. What did you expect? The price of a gyudon?

What I'd people expect? That the Games would actually BENEFIT the nation?? There would be no corruption? No bid-ridding and inflated construction costs? That all the venues will be useful, lucrative sites when the Games are done? That it was really for the good of Tohoku and th Japanese and would showcase their ability to host a compact, cost-efficient games?