Black Money behind Tokyo Olympics Bid

A major scoop on money scandal over the competition for Olympics 2020 came from Britain. British daily newspaper, Guardian, reported that “a seven-figure payment” was transferred from Tokyo Olympic bid team to the son of former president of International Association of Athletics Federations. The team earnestly lobbied international organizations of sports and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was involved in, making speech to International Olympic Committee to invite Tokyo Olympic. Who is responsible for the scandal, anyway?

Guardian found that French police was investigating the case of payment from Tokyo Olympic Invitation Committee to the account of Papa Massata Diack, the son of former IAAF president and Senegalese athlete, Lamine Diack. In July and October of 2013, just before and after of IOC General Assembly that determined the host of 2020 Olympics, 2.8 million Singaporean dollar was sent from a bank account in Japan to a firm in Singapore with the subject of “Invitation for Tokyo Olympic 2020.” Papa Massata Diack, who was working for IAAF as a consultant, had relationship with the firm in Singapore.

Shocking enough for Japanese media, Guardian indicated that Japanese advertising firm, Dentsu, was involved in the scandal. The paper had revealed that Papa Massasta Diack, who had carte blanche to seek sponsorship deals with Dentsu, requested $5 million at the time when it was bidding for 2017 World Athletics Championships and 2020 Olympics. “The seven-figure payment from Tokyo 2020 also raises questions about the role of Dentsu, the Japanese marketing giant that has an all-encompassing sponsorship contract with the IAAF that runs until 2029, having been unilaterally extended by Diack in the final months of his presidency,” described Guardian.

Japanese newspapers and TV stations have long-time partnership with Dentsu for collecting ads, which consists a great share of their income. Media look like reluctant to report what Dentsu has been doing behind the scene. It was reported that Dentsu was involved in the scandal of plagiarism over official emblem for Tokyo Olympics last year.

Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, told that he recognized the invitation of Tokyo Olympics to be done in a “clean way”. He was willing to cooperate with the investigation of law enforcement organization of France. But, most people do not believe Tokyo Olympic to be clean, having realized consecutive scandals. French police may put a fatal damage on this event.