Japan Press Weekly

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2015 July 15 - 21 TOP3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

PM Abe gives up costly Olympic stadium construction plan

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on July 17 announced his decision to replace the current plan to construct a new national athletic stadium, centerpiece of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, with a new one.

The current plan, under which the total construction cost ballooned to 252 billion yen, has provoked fierce criticisms and objections from a wide range of people, including athletes. This has driven the prime minister to make this decision. The Japanese Communist Party has also called on the government to revise the current plan drastically.

Following the prime minister’s announcement, JCP member of the House of Representatives Miyamoto Takeshi issued a statement.

In the statement, Miyamoto pointed to the fact that prominent architects have proposed revisions to the construction of a 252-billion-yen national stadium and that many opinion polls showed that 80% of those surveyed said that the construction plan should be revised. He stressed that even Olympians and other athletes expressed their opposition to such a costly stadium.

Miyamoto also said that the JCP in the Diet repeatedly took up the issue of the national stadium and urged the government and the prime minister to rethink the costly construction plan.

The JCP lawmaker noted that the International Olympic Committee in the Olympic Agenda 2020 emphasizes the need to reduce the financial burdens for cities hosting the Olympic Games. He said that the JCP together with the general public will keep an eye on this issue in order to have the government construct a simple and economical athletic stadium by respecting the Olympic Agenda and by abiding by public consensus.

Past related article:
> Sports minister fails to come up with sufficient financial resources to build Olympic stadium [July 10, 2015]
> The proposed 252-billion-yen Olympic stadium is too costly [June 30, 2015]
> JCP calls for revision of costly, time-consuming design for new Olympic stadium [June 4, 2015]