Japanese media report canoeing and rowing may move in response to soaring costs despite promise of a ‘compact’ games

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The International Olympic Committee is considering moving the rowing and canoeing events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to South Korea in an attempt to cut soaring costs, according to Japanese media reports.



Depriving Japan of the events risks provoking a backlash from the Tokyo 2020 organisers, and would make a mockery of the city’s vow to hold a “compact” Games.

Kyodo News and the Asahi Shimbun on Tuesday cited unnamed sources as saying that the events could be held in the South Korean city of Chungju – one of the venues for the 2014 Asian Games – if organisers and Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, fail to agree on a site in Japan.

The option of moving the sports out of the country is reportedly being considered after a panel of experts Koike set up to review costs recently proposed moving the rowing and canoe sprint several hundred miles from the capital to a venue in north-east Japan, rather than building a new venue in Tokyo Bay.

The panel also suggested renovating existing venues in Tokyo for volleyball and swimming and scrapping plans to construct new stadia for the sports. It put the cost of hosting Tokyo 2020 at 3 trillion yen (£23bn), four times the original estimate and almost three times higher than London 2012.

Koike became Tokyo’s first female governor in July after promising to slash wasteful spending. But by targeting the Olympics as one area in which savings could be made, she risks alienating Games organisers and sports federations that have called for rowing, swimming and volleyball to be kept in Tokyo.

In a meeting with the IOC president, Thomas Bach, in Tokyo on Tuesday, Koike said the public supported her economy drive. “When I won the election two months ago, I swore to the public that the spending for the Olympics and Paralympics needed to be reviewed,” Koike said, according to Kyodo.

Koike said she would conclude her review of the three Olympic venues by the end of the month.

The rocky road to Tokyo 2020 Japan’s preparations have suffered a series of setbacks:

• The original design for the main stadium was scrapped after complaints about its size and cost. • The original logo was also abandoned after the designer was accused of plagiarism. • The potential price tag has soared to 3tn yen (£23bn), four times the original estimate. • In May, the Guardian revealed that the bid committee had paid more than £1.6m to a company linked to the son of the disgraced former world athletics chief, Lamine Diack. A Japanese investigation cleared officials of any illegal activity, but French prosecutors have yet to complete their investigation.



Bach refused to comment on “media rumours” about rowing’s possible switch to South Korea, but said the IOC was willing to work with Koike to reduce spiralling costs.

“The Tokyo metropolitan government will finalise its internal study, then we’ll discuss it with the other stakeholders ... and then I am confident that you will see a significant reduction in the cost compared to what we have seen so far from the press,” he told reporters.

The controversy over the rowing and canoe-kayak sprint competitions deepened on Tuesday after the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper claimed that the Tokyo metropolitan government had lied to the IOC about the cost of building permanent facilities for the events.

The paper said Tokyo government officials had dramatically understated construction costs in a report to the IOC, allegedly to ensure the sports would be held in the capital.

The Mainichi report quoted Tokyo government documents showing that building Sea Forest, a new rowing and canoeing facility in Tokyo Bay, would cost 25 billion yen. The estimate given to the IOC, however, was 9.8 billion yen.

“The IOC pointed out that our expenses were too high, so we gave them an unfounded figure,” the Mainichi quoted a senior Tokyo metropolitan government official as saying.

The total cost of building the Sea Forest venue, including surrounding parks and other “legacy” infrastructure, has been estimated at 49.1 billion yen. Government officials, however, said on Tuesday they should be able reduce that figure to 30 billion yen by shrinking the size of some facilities.

Olympic organisers and the International Rowing Federations are dismayed by the prospect of the event being held either in Naganuma Boat Park in Tome, Miyagi – one of three prefectures hit hard by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami – or in South Korea.

The Miyagi option could also prove expensive, however. The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organising committee said turning the venue, which is 270 miles (440km) from Tokyo, into one capable of hosting the Olympics could exceed 35.1 billion yen.

“I would like to stress once again that the decision [to build a new canoeing venue in Tokyo] was made unanimously and based on thorough investigations,” Toshiaki Endo, a Tokyo 2020 executive board member, said earlier this month. “We have conducted careful examinations of all candidate rowing sites.

“As a result, all parties, including the IOC, the international federations, the national federations, Tokyo 2020 organising committee and the Tokyo metropolitan government came to the conclusion that Sea Forest Waterway was the most promising, and best suited to hosting rowing competitions.”

Japan’s sports minister, Hirokazu Matsuno, said on Tuesday that “venues for the Olympics should be located inside the host country”.

Tokyo won the right to host the Games in 2013 by promising a compact Games with 28 of the 31 competition venues within a five-mile radius of the Olympic village. Its bid stated that only venues for shooting and modern pentathlon, and one football stadium, would be located outside the radius.