Tokyo 2020 Bid Gets National Backing

January 23, 2012

A nationwide poll has shown that 65.7 percent of respondents support Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

“These results indicate that some 80 million people across the whole of Japan are behind our bid,” Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda said Monday. “This is wonderful news for Tokyo 2020.”

Tokyo’s bid has received the support of the national government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, both Houses of the Japanese Diet, and, Takeda said that the political, business and sporting communities have declared their full support as well.

The Japanese capital is up against Doha, Qatar; Baku, Azerbaijan; Istanbul; Madrid and Rome. The candidate cities will submit their plans for the games to the International Olympic Committee by February. The IOC will select the host city in September 2013.

Tokyo is promoting its 2020 bid as a symbol of Japan’s recovery from last year’s earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing on Japan’s northeast coast.

Tokyo lost out to Rio de Janeiro in a bid to host the 2016 Games, partly due to lower than expected public support. Bid officials have said they are targeting a support rate of 70 percent for the 2020 campaign.