Tokyo Plans “Compact Games”

The Tokyo Summer Olympic 2020 bid committee has developed a plan for a “compact Games” that involves competition venues and 87,000 hotel rooms for visitors concentrated within a 10-kilometre radius in a central location.

The plan will be submitted by January 7. Bidding cities may start their promotional campaigns overseas early next month and the Japan Olympic Committee will dispatch executives to Europe for an extended period in the hope of gaining an edge over its competitors, Madrid and Istanbul.

Tokyo’s plan states that its basic approach is to concentrate 85 percent of the competition venues within an eight-kilometer radius from the athletes’ village, to be built in the Harumi waterfront district of Chuo Ward.

The marathon course would start at the New National Stadium, passing by such sites as Tokyo Dome and the Imperial Palace and finishing at the stadium.

The plan emphasises Tokyo’s state-of-the-art public transportation system, which can reportedly carry 25.7 million passengers a day.

Sections of the Metropolitan Expressway and other main that amount to about 320 kilometers would be designated as “Olympic lanes” for exclusive use by athletes and Games officials.

More than 140,000 hotel rooms would be made available within a 50-kilometer radius from the athletes’ village.

The plan states the Tokyo Games would make the best possible use of eco-friendly technologies such as solar panels and low-emission vehicles.

The Japanese Olympic Committee plans to collect information through its executives dispatched to Europe because the International Olympic Committee is headquartered in Switzerland and nearly half of its members are from the region.