Olympic Infrastructure

One of the greatest significance of Tokyo Olympic Games 1964 was putting a period of the end of post-war era in Japan. To show how Japan was reconstructed, the government developed various infrastructures, including national stadium, metropolitan highway and sports arenas. After the Olympic games, those facilities became symbols of the event and broadly used by the public. Now, the plan of rebuilding new national stadium for Olympic 2020 is drifting, mainly because its value after the event is still not clear.

The National Stadium in Tokyo was the main facility for Tokyo Olympic 1964, where opening and closing ceremonies were held. The government decided to scrap and rebuild the stadium for 2020, with the cost of ¥169 billion. The capacity of audience will increase from 54,000 to 80,000. On the top of the building, removable ceiling will be settled for all-weather purpose.

The national government asked Tokyo Metropolitan Government contribution of ¥50 billion for maintenance around new stadium. However, Tokyo government was frustrated with irrelevantly high burden on local government. Without detailed architecture plan of the building, the national government determined the beginning of construction to be on October 2015.

An organization belongs to Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology presented an estimation of future income. It predicted great amount of income overtaking spending, which expected payments of private corporations for ads in rooms of the stadium, and charges on international conventions, sports events and music concerts.

However, the balance of income and spending of the facility after 2020 is highly skeptical. It is unlikely for the stadium to find any soccer team that chooses that expensive stadium for their home stadium. There will not be sufficient effects for music concert in the stadium. Local government will have to pay for a part of maintenance efforts, regardless the balance.

Rebuilding of the National Stadium was decided even before Tokyo was selected for 2020. The politics dominated by Liberal Democratic Party had been looking at the Olympic Game mainly as a big business chance for their supporters. Although Japan candidacy emphasized “compact Olympic” or “environment conscious,” the national government is looking forward to renovating transportation system of Tokyo metropolitan area, including highway system already vulnerable to earthquake. Those construction policies may cause further accumulation of national debt.