Tokyo Olympic aftermath still being untangled a year later
Associated PressTOKYO — The Tokyo Olympics survived the COVID-19 postponement, soaring expenses and some public opposition. Organizers said the Games would drive tourism, showcase Japan’s technological prowess, and create memories similar to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. “I think what the Games meant more than anything else was simply not having to deal with a cancellation,” David Leheny, a political scientist at Japan’s Waseda University, told The Associated Press. I do think officials would like to have run a victory lap — if the public had been more enthusiastic about it.” “If Japan had cancelled,” Leheny added, “there would have been a lot of discussion, particularly in the conservative media, about what it meant that we couldn’t pull it off.” As a final act before legally dissolving the organizing committee on June 30, President Seiko Hashimoto and CEO Toshiro Muto said the price tag for the Tokyo Games was $13 billion — almost 60% public money. “We’re already working toward that,” Seiko Hashimoto, the head of the Tokyo Games, said last month.