According to their organizers, the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were less expensive than expected. Held between late July and early September 2021 behind closed doors, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they cost the equivalent of 11.3 billion euros, according to the latest calculation announced in the Japanese capital.
The bill for the double sporting event, postponed for a year due to the pandemic, thus stands at 1.453 billion yen, according to this official estimate presented on Wednesday, a cost lower than 1.644 billion yen (12.9 billion euros at the current exchange rate) quoted in December 2020.
Important clarification: the bill represents almost double compared to the 734 billion yen initially envisaged in Tokyo’s candidacy in 2013. However, the cost of the Games could be reduced thanks to measures to simplify the event and to the savings due. the virtual absence of spectators in the stadiums, said the organizers in a press release. The closed session, however, deprived Tokyo-2020 of around 90 billion yen in ticket sales.
A long, not quiet river
The organization of the Tokyo Olympics has been marked, since their attribution to the Japanese capital in 2013, by a series of controversies over their cost, various scandals and twists that culminated in March 2020 with the announcement of their postponement of one year due to the pandemic. They were held last summer despite hostility from much of public opinion as the country experienced its worst outbreak of infections.