TOKYO: A bribery scandal engulfing final summer’s pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games has thrown a dark cloud over Sapporo’s 2030 bid and elevated fresh questions within Japan about hosting the Olympics again.
Former Tokyo 2020 executive Haruyuki Takahashi was arrested on suspicion of bribery in August and more accusations were levelled towards him last week in a widening investigation straight into corruption at the heart from the Games.
The particular scandal comes in a bad time for your northern Japanese city of Sapporo, which is bidding to host the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Sapporo staged the Games within 1972 and is seen as a frontrunner despite competition from Vancouver and Salt Lake Town.
Sapporo gran Katsuhiro Akimoto plus Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) president Yasuhiro Yamashita were planned to visit International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne to talk up the bid later this month.
The delegation last week cancelled the trip, with Yamashita blaming the scheduling issue.
Akimoto said that it had “nothing related to the bribery case surrounding the Tokyo Olympics”.
But the controversy has capped the headlines in Japan’s leading newspapers and prosecutors possess carried out fresh raids in recent times.
Takahashi, the 78-year-old former mature managing director of Japanese advertising giant Dentsu, is thought of accepting bribes in return for helping businesses become official Tokyo Games sponsors.
Former and present executives from business suit retailer Aoki Holdings and main publishing firm Kadokawa have also been arrested.
And local media reports say Takahashi has claimed this individual gave money in order to then-Tokyo 2020 leader Yoshiro Mori, an ex Japanese prime minister.
The controversy has helped rekindle anti-Olympic sentiment within Japan, which saw a swell of opposition to holding the Tokyo Online games in the middle of a pandemic.
The Asahi Shimbun daily within an editorial urged Sapporo to “hold off” on its 2030 bid until the scandal had been “resolved”.
It said the Japanese public view the Olympics “with mistrust and suspicion”.
A year ago, the Asahi required the Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled just two months before they were set to begin, accusing IOC officials of being “self-righteous”.
CREATING A MEAL OF IT?
For all the domestic attention on the scandal, specialists are doubtful it provides any impact once the IOC comes to selecting a 2030 host.
With cities more reluctant to suppose the expense and dispute of hosting a Video games, the IOC can not afford to be fussy.