By Jack Tarrant
TOKYO (Reuters) – Organisers of the rearranged Tokyo Olympics announced on Wednesday that they will be introducing cost-cutting measures to save 30 billion yen ($283 million) as they plan for the Games next year.
In March, the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) postponed the Games until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, the IOC have said they expect to pay $800 million in additional costs because of the delay but Japan-based organisers have been more coy with their numbers.
On Wednesday, members of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee made a virtual presentation to the IOC, where they laid out more than 50 ‘simplification’ measures.
These measures include cutting spending on the look of the Games venues, changes to torch relay operations and reducing non-athlete personnel coming to Tokyo.
Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said there would be more cost-cutting measures to come.
(Reporting by Jack Tarrant; Editing by Alison Williams and Christian Radnedge)
