Ken Marantz / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter
Before being treated to a luxurious state dinner in their honor Saturday evening, the IOC Evaluation Commission got a heaping helping of the financial aspects of the Tokyo 2016 bid.
Finances and marketing were among the themes addressed during presentations made by bid officials and experts on Saturday, the third day of the IOC delegation's four-day visit.
"Japan has a strong corporate community with 47 of the top 500 companies in the world based in Tokyo," Japan Olympic Committee president Tsunekazu Takeda told a press briefing later in the day. "We are confident of support [for a Tokyo 2106 Olympics] from our companies."
The presentation was conveniently timed to come the day after the JOC announced it had signed up six major corporations as Gold Partners, its most exclusive and expensive marketing arrangement.
With the addition of 12 "official partners," Takeda said that for the next four-year cycle, the JOC has already secured an amount equal to 75 percent of its last quadrennial budget of 10 billion yen.
"It's amazing under the current economic conditions," said Hidetoshi Maki, deputy director general of the Tokyo 2016 bid committee. "It shows that potential partners among Japanese companies is strong."
The economic crisis seemed quite distant at the banquet hosted by Prime Minister Taro Aso at the palatial State Guesthouse in Motoakasaka, Tokyo, where the IOC panel, along with government and JOC officials and special guests such as Olympic swimming champion Kosuke Kitajima, dined on foie gras and grilled Matsuzaka beef.
The financial arrangement for Tokyo's hosting of the 2016 Games has been among the strong points of the city's proposal, and bid officials prepared diligently to make dollars and sense of it for the IOC panel.
In addition to pointing out that the Tokyo metropolitan government has already set aside a 4 billion dollars contingency fund and the Japanese government has guaranteed to cover overruns, the Tokyo 2016 side mentioned the growing market in Asia, where the estimated prime-time TV-viewing audience would be 3 billion.
Toshiaki Hosaka, a senior member of the Tokyo government's bid promotion division, also pointed out that while Japan is the second-largest economy in the world, Tokyo by itself would be ranked 15th globally.
In the morning session, the bid committee presented its plan for the Paralympics, indicating that Tokyo has made great strides to increase accessibility for the disabled and create a barrier-free society.
(Apr. 19, 2009)
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