Unrealistically Luxury Stadium

In an enthusiasm of winning the ticket of Tokyo Olympic in 2020, the government of Japan decided to renew National Stadium, which was built for the main stadium of the last Tokyo Olympic in 1964. Now, the renewal plan is becoming a beast of burden for a compact Olympic, in which budget for sport facilities is strictly limited. The cost for constructing New National Stadium is expanding unexpectedly. National government and Tokyo Metropolitan Government began to accuse each other.

Before winning the ticket, the committee for inviting Olympic held a competition of new stadium, in which a female Iranian architect won. Her design of the stadium was excellently groundbreaking with retractable roof over the field. One of the judges of the competition, Tadao Ando, a well-known Japanese architect, welcomed the originality and commented that new stadium would appeal Japan’s advance to the world with strong impact.

However, fiscal problem appeared as the committee calculated actual cost for the Olympic. Although the initial idea on the cost was ¥130 billion, it appeared that real value of the construction would be swelling as much as ¥300 billion. In addition to current price hike of raw materials along with declining value of Japanese yen, the design was too unrealistic to apply to the building with initial budget. It was after the competition when the committee members realized that she had been called “Queen of Unbuilt.”

The committee abandoned the retractable roof and field-side seats that was also retractable. The cost was estimated to be cut down to as little as ¥165 billion. But, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology asked Tokyo government to pay ¥50 billion for the construction. Surprised by abrupt offer of investment, Governor of Tokyo, Yo-ichi Masuzoe, rejected to pay for “a baseless plan.”

For the ticket of Olympic in 2016, each of national or Tokyo government accepted the payment for half of the whole cost, actually ¥100 billion, for new stadium. National government still expects Tokyo to pay ¥50 billion. Tokyoargues that it has no obligation for the payment, because the constructor has changed from Tokyo to the national for 2020.

It is fair to say that the quarrel stemmed from unreasonable invitation of Olympic. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe boldly asserted that contaminated water in Fukushima was under control, only resulting in spreading skepticism on Japan’s management of the nuclear accident. To buy votes for Tokyo, Japanproposed compact Olympic with unrealistic plan for the facility. It will be Japanese people who will pay for the baseless estimation made by national government.