Support for Tokyo Olympic bid below 70%: survey

Friday 01st May, 07:12 AM JST

TOKYO —

Fewer than 70% of respondents nationwide support Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday. The telephone survey conducted Tuesday and Wednesday found that only 67.8% of respondents were in favor of Tokyo hosting its second Olympics since the 1964 Summer Games.

The result showed a clear problem with support with just five months remaining before the International Olympic Committee general assembly names the host city in an Oct 2 vote in Copenhagen. Tokyo is vying against Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. An overwhelming 50% of those who gave support to the bid in the telephone survey said their main reason was due to expectations of a strong economic effect, while 60.4% of those opposed said it was a waste of taxpayers’ money.

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Latest 15 of 19 Total Comments Show All

mrsynik at 09:31 AM JST - 1st May

I'm surprised support is even as strong as in the 60% range. They won't come to Japan again until Osaka, Nagoya or Fukuoka bid for them.
timorborder at 09:40 AM JST - 1st May

70%? This sounds like a pie in the sky figure. Support for the Olympics might be over 70% among members of Pork Barrelers, Inc. here in Japan, but I think the average Taro on the street would like the government to confront more pressing issues such as employment security, etc.
MichaelJP at 10:25 AM JST - 1st May

Everyone I spoke too hates the idea of the Olympics here. I'm talking about 100% of Japanese. Where did the 70% support figure come from?
nigelboy at 10:25 AM JST - 1st May

I would expect it was limited to people in Tokyo, so to get as high a support as possible.

Nope. You'd expect the lowest support as possible from Tokyo because it's coming from the taxpayers of Tokyo.
LostinNagoya at 11:31 AM JST - 1st May

The other 3 cities are facing the same inside opponents to hosting the Olympics. I saw that Rio will even stage an all-black manifestation when the IOC arrives to inspect the city facilities. Chicago and Madrid too, are complaining of the high costs and low return before and after the Games. It´s time to IOC change the Games format, way too business-like. Spanish people for instance, are against Madrid hosting the Games, but they are for the country co-hosting the 2018 World Cup. So, put the blame on IOC for these poor support rates.
gogogo at 11:33 AM JST - 1st May

I don't want Japan to get the Olympics, this is great news. I can't go into why without going off topic and my post removed.
MichaelJP at 11:49 AM JST - 1st May

Lets get the Japanese citizens to start a letter-writing campaign to the IOC to express their real views on a Tokyo Olympics.
RandomTask at 12:21 PM JST - 1st May

How about putting a yes/no survey up on this site?
majimeaussie at 01:21 PM JST - 1st May

Unlike most of you on the board here I would like to see Tokyo get the Olympics and most of the people I talk to say the say thing.

My question is what is with the headline and angle of the story? Is 70% some critical figure that I don't understand? It would be more correct to say "More than 2 thirds of people support the Olympics"
soldave at 02:41 PM JST - 1st May

nigelboy - Is the Tokyo bid using none of the tax money collected nationally, and only money collected from Tokyo residents?
mareo2 at 03:52 PM JST - 1st May

"The Tokyo metropolitan government has 6.6 trillion yen from its annual budget in its general account, the most for any city in the world," Takaya said. "We already have $4.4 billion (402 billion yen) secured for the Games from the TMG and Japan's central government will guarantee the event."

My concerns is that publics works have an awful tendency to end costing more than the planers projected, so is possible that all the country end paying part of a Tokyo's party. 4 billions dollars is quite a lot of money that can be used in to create permanent jobs in Tokyo, the boost to the local economy is temporary, when the games end, the business boost end to. Said that, I think that opinion that is really important, is the opinion of the people living in Tokyo, nationwide survey is not so relevant if the rest of the country is only a garantor.
nigelboy at 05:03 PM JST - 1st May

nigelboy - Is the Tokyo bid using none of the tax money collected nationally, and only money collected from Tokyo residents?

You should quit while you're ahead.
jonnyboy at 05:12 PM JST - 1st May

isn't a great deal of the homeless population in tokyo as a result of work that was temporarily created for the previous tokyo olympics?
Ninjazilla at 12:23 PM JST - 2nd May

See you in Chicago!Japan is not gonna get it.
JoeBigs at 12:58 AM JST - 3rd May

The Olympics are one big hole of wasted yen. I hope some other sap gets the nod for the Olympics. The IOC is a filled with corrupt members that make tons of cash while the host city gets shafted with the debt.