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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday removed a comment from its website that referred to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe when discussing the financial impact of postponing the Games, following objections from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee.
The IOC and the Japanese government agreed last month to postpone the 2020 Olympics due to the global outbreak of coronavirus.
The costs of reorganizing the Games have not yet been clarified by the IOC or the Japanese government and who will pay for them.
However, on Monday the IOC published a Q&A on its website about the postponement and answered the question “What will be the financial impact of postponing the Games?”
Part of the response was about Abe and has become the point of discussion among the organizing partners of the Olympic Games.
“Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo agreed that Japan will continue to cover the costs it would have done under the terms of the existing agreement by 2020, and that the IOC will continue to be responsible for its share of the costs,” the IOC response said.
“For the IOC, it is already clear that this represents several hundred million dollars in additional costs.”
On Tuesday, Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said “it was not appropriate for the prime minister’s name to be cited in this way.”
“What we are asking the IOC team to do is not quote the name of the Japanese prime minister, and the IOC website should not express beyond what was agreed between the IOC and Tokyo 2020,” said Takaya.
Later Tuesday, the IOC updated the question and answer section of its website and removed any mention of Abe.
“The IOC and the Japanese side, including the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, will continue to jointly assess and discuss the respective impacts caused by the postponement,” the updated statement read.
Tokyo 2020 said the breakdown of who will pay the additional costs was not discussed between Abe and IOC President Thomas Bach when the two made the decision to postpone the Games.
Previously, the Kyodo News Agency reported that Abe had agreed that Japan would bear the cost, which Kyodo said amounted to around $ 3 billion.
Japan’s top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday that Abe had not accepted any additional costs.
