Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced yesterday the scrapping of a plan for a controversial national stadium, the centerpiece of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, after skyrocketing costs sparked public outrage.
Anger over the stadium, the estimated cost of which had climbed to US$2.1 billion, almost twice its expected cost when Tokyo won the bid for the Summer Games in 2013, had become a liability for Abe as he pushes unpopular defense bills through parliament.
Support for Abe, who returned to office in 2012 pledging to bolster defenses and reboot the economy, has slipped to about 40 percent on voter doubts over the defense legislation. News about the stadium has fed into that discontent.
Photo: EPA
“We are scrapping our plans for the stadium, and starting from zero,” Abe told reporters after meeting Japanese Minister of Olympics Toshiaki Endo and Japanese Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura.
Referring to the furor over the cost, Abe said: “The Olympics are a party for our people, and they and the athletes, each one of them, are the main players. We need to make it something that they can celebrate.”
Tokyo won the Olympics on a reputation for getting things done, but immediately ran into problems with costs and a rollback of some promises, such as keeping most sports venues within 8km of the Olympic village.
The stadium, which was designed by British-based architect Zaha Hadid and likened to a bicycle helmet, has been criticized as expensive, grandiose and unsuited to the site, where a stadium built for Tokyo’s 1964 Olympics stood until it was demolished recently.
Abe said that new arrangements would have to be made as soon as possible. A new venue would not be ready in time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
However, he made no mention of costs and whether this meant another competition for a design, or if another design from a 2012 competition would be used.
Though scaling back stadium plans is not unheard of — it happened for the London 2012 and Sydney 2000 games — changing plans entirely at this stage is unusual.
Officials had previously said changing the design would damage Tokyo’s reputation.
Media reports said the Rugby World Cup would be held in an existing stadium and the government was aiming to keep costs for the new stadium to about ￥180 billion (US$1.45 billion).
The stadium was originally estimated to cost ￥130 billion, but last year estimates rocketed to ￥300 billion. Last month, the government put the cost at ￥252 billion.
Political experts said the stadium decision was aimed at bolstering support hit by the furor over the security legislation, which includes changes that would allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War II.
Tens of thousands of people have protested against the legislation, which was approved by the Japanese parliament’s lower house on Thursday.
“It’s pretty blatant,” said Steven Reed, a political science professor at Chuo University. “It’s a wise play, but whether it will work or not is hard to tell.”
Landing the Olympics added luster to Abe’s administration, but plans quickly bogged down. The demolition of the old stadium was delayed and organizers broke promises to keep most venues close to the Olympic Village.
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