TOKYO —

One day before architect Tadao Ando’s scheduled press conference, Nikkan Gendai (July 16) went after the 73-year-old Ando, chairman of the Olympic Stadium Design Committee, laying the blame on him for the cost overruns on the National Stadium Project.

Ando, the tabloid alleges, appears to be a habitual overspender. As a case in point, he was brought in to undertake the reconstruction of JR Kumamoto Station, which needed to be rebuilt to accommodate the new Kyushu Shinkansen that began operations from spring of 2011. The project was to be completed by 2018.

Entrusted to the design by Kumamoto Prefecture, Ando provided an initial estimate of 560 million yen for the new station. The costs since soared nearly six fold to 3 billion yen and, horrified by the excess, the Kumamoto assembly raised a fuss and finally got an agreement to whittle down the final price to 2.4 billion yen—still nearly five times the original figure.

For an expert architect, cost overruns of such magnitude should be impossible, but apparently Ando has been immune from criticism by his colleagues.

“Ninety percent of architects may think what he’s doing is idiotic, but they won’t raise their voices,” an architectural journalist confides.

Rival architect Kisho Kurokawa, who passed away in 2007, was one exception, having once remarked that “Nobody would want to go to the Ando-designed Omotesando Hills.” But with no more respected seniors remaining to criticize his works, Ando is able to run rampant, reminiscent of the famous fable about the “naked emperor.”

As bad as that whopping 252 billion yen estimated bill for the new stadium may stick in the public’s throat, Nikkan Gendai (July 14) shows that NHK’s new headquarters, to be located on land already acquired at Jinnan 2-chome in Shibuya Ward, will be built at an estimated cost of 340 billion yen—exceeding the stadium price tag by a considerable margin. Rather than pay for it from tax revenues, NHK expects to foot the bill through contributions from its viewers.

NHK Chairman Katsuto Momii was said to have explained the reason why the new site was selected was that “No additional outlays would be required to secure the property.”

But journalist Shinichiro Suda tells the tabloid that a cost projection by internal auditors found that compared with rebuilding on its current site, moving to a new location would cost approximately double. “I’ve even heard talk that the costs will surpass 400 billion yen,” Suda noted.

Comparisons with buildings recently erected by private TV networks reveal the profligate nature of the NHK planners. Nihon TV’s new headquarters came to 110 billion yen. TV Asahi’s was just 50 billion yen. Clearly, NHK’s outlays exceed the others by far.

Takashi Tachibana, a former NHK staff member who is currently a member of the Funabashi City assembly, is quoted as saying, “NHK’s current accrued reserves come to 200 billion yen, and as they’ve got a surplus from subscriber fees, it was only a matter of time until somebody would demand the money should be reimbursed to the viewers. So the decision to build the new HQ was based on the intention to use up the money. Other reasons for the high price include a more robust earthquake-resistant structure and measures related to advancing the next-generation 8K high vision TV technology.”

Nikkan Gendai notes that 144.1 billion yen in pooled funding not spent in 2011 was transferred to a reserve fund earmarked for construction a year later.

“NHK’s surplus should be refunded to subscribers,” grumbled the aforementioned Tachibana, who said he felt it strange that the organization should indulge itself in a deluxe new building at a time when people have become so sensitive to waste.

Just as with the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education, NHK follows the line of thought that budgeted funds absolutely must be spent, even if the spending amounts to no more than flushing them down the drain.

Japan Today

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  Joeintokyo at Jul. 18, 2015 - 07:31AM JST

  Like I need even more reason not to pay the NHK fee. At least having never paid in 20+ years, I can't really feel too much outrage over this.

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  sighclops at Jul. 18, 2015 - 08:29AM JST

  Disgusting, yet unsurpising attitude on display by those at NHK.

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  Sensato at Jul. 18, 2015 - 08:38AM JST

  NHK expects to foot the bill through contributions from its viewers.

  It makes me angry that they refer to the presumably mandatory NHK fee/tax as "contributions" from viewers.

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  smithinjapan at Jul. 18, 2015 - 08:57AM JST

  Maybe CH3CHO and others can still keep trying to blame this on Hadid, not the people who chose who design, went crazy with the bid-rigging and other plans, and then raised the costs exponentially after making THEIR choice on which design to use!

  This is beyond disgusting. I hope Japan never gets the opportunity to host such large events again, be it rugby or otherwise, since they clearly cannot be held accountable for their own massive screw-ups.

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  GalapagosnoGairaishu at Jul. 18, 2015 - 09:04AM JST

  I would not hire Ando to design an outhouse. When he dies, he will be remembered as having made the world an even uglier place. His "uchippanashi" designs of unadorned, steel-reinforced concrete look like the blockhouses set up at Yucca Flats, Nevada to test the efficacy of atomic bombs, i.e., a bare-bones structure that would not be missed by anyone. Actually Ando's style is just a more extreme, uglier version of works by American Louis I. Kahn, and nothing original about them.

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  fxgai at Jul. 18, 2015 - 09:32AM JST

  Another illustration of the attitude of bureaucrats in this country when it comes to spending other peoples money.

  This is how you accumulate a quadrillion yen of public debt and still fail to build a stadium on time.

  The strangest thing about all this is why the Japanese public continues to let it happen to them.

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  GW at Jul. 18, 2015 - 10:11AM JST

  WOW just WOW!! This is disgusting on SO MANY levels!

  Lets face these "budgets" are NOT error, the truth is they are LIES & being highly deceitful! these SOBs of their fellow criminals DO THIS so they can reap massive profits!! When will people learn here, hopefully this stadium will wake the masses up more!

  As for nhk.....jt would let me post what I want to say but OMFG!! People should be trial for piling up this ca$$$h & this is the first time I have heard nhk is swimming in MASSIVE SURPLUSES, why the hell hasn't this been news before!!

  This is why I always say the govt has had PLENTY of taxes form the people to run this country since forever. BUT each ministry stock piles surpluses & every dept on down does as well & they either horde it or WASTE it to get more the next year.

  With miniscule fiscal responsibility Japan's govt I suspect could easily have balanced or surplus budgets THAT is what ticks me off to no end!!!

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  Jalapeno at Jul. 18, 2015 - 10:18AM JST

  I once told an NHK guy trying to collect, "If I walked into a supermarket, and I was told to buy beer, but I don't drink beer, but the supermarket staff told me I should still buy it, does that seem fair?"

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  rainyday at Jul. 18, 2015 - 11:20AM JST

  Ando's buildings aren't bad, but I do resent the way his (and other big name architects) projects basically only exist because they can abuse the taxpayer's money like this.

  I am glad he is taking heat for this, the idea that his committee didn't have to concern itself with cost issues is idiotic and brutally arrogant on his part (the assumption apparently being that whatever it cost, taxpayers would foot the bill anyway so whatever).

  Hadid isn't free of blame either, her projects do this all the time too, though in this case I would put more on Ando, and more still on Mori.

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  jerseyboy at Jul. 18, 2015 - 11:53AM JST

  Rather than pay for it from tax revenues, NHK expects to foot the bill through contributions from its viewers.

  Talk about clever semantics. "Contributions from its viewers" are mandatory, by law. So they are virtually the same as "tax revenue". Oh you lucky pigeons still having the privledge to pay your hard-earned money for such nonsense.

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  itsonlyrocknroll at Jul. 18, 2015 - 12:00PM JST

  The 'Invested interest' is somewhere in there under the carpet, I would seriously question the auditing, whose hands were on the pencils. The 'Hadid' factor is the classic red herring to divert attention away from the real culprits, failures in oversight being amongst my favorites as a starting point to prise out the miscreant.

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  GalapagosnoGairaishu at Jul. 18, 2015 - 12:01PM JST

  Ando's buildings aren't bad,

  As bomb shelters, maybe. Or prisons. They also remind me of the sinister Satyan No. 7 built by the Aum Supreme Truth out by Mt. Fuji. Somber, drained of all human warmth and vaguely menacing. In "You Only Live Twice," the New Otani Hotel was used as the villain's headquarters. If they ever do a remake, they'll have any number of Ando's eyesores to pick.

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  badsey3 at Jul. 18, 2015 - 09:23PM JST

  For an expert architect, cost overruns of such magnitude should be impossible, but apparently Ando has been immune from criticism by his colleagues. “Ninety percent of architects may think what he’s doing is idiotic, but they won’t raise their voices,” an architectural journalist confides.

  Nikkan Gendai (July 16) went after the 73-year-old Ando, chairman of the Olympic Stadium Design Committee,

  He is the chairman of the committee that oversees the project. Basically he is given word by Zaha Hadid et al when there are issues. And with Ando having health issues you are now seeing these types of attacked however warranted.

  The real issue here is the inflation of the currency making this project look like it costs more (as said before). This is a project the Abe could step in and try to lower these costs thru tax incentives and maybe even free labor help (Gov/citizen). As for the money itself the sum is rather small considering how much money this Gov wastes/grants.

  The other "bigger" real issue is the site itself (park space) and the surrounding structures.

  True architectural issue: Can they make a Zaha Hadid "vision" into a working reality that is functional and useable for the future.

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  rainyday at Jul. 18, 2015 - 09:30PM JST

  As bomb shelters, maybe. Or prisons. They also remind me of the sinister Satyan No. 7 built by the Aum Supreme Truth out by Mt. Fuji. Somber, drained of all human warmth and vaguely menacing. In "You Only Live Twice," the New Otani Hotel was used as the villain's headquarters. If they ever do a remake, they'll have any number of Ando's eyesores to pick.

  Not sure about you but I live in a country where every city has at least one or two full size replica Gothic cathedrals with all exterior surfaces and ornamentation made of plastic.

  Compared to everything else being built in this country, unadorned concrete boxes seem tasteful and unassuming to me..

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  Supey11 at Jul. 18, 2015 - 10:42PM JST

  The saddest part of this article is that it took the derailment of the Olympic stadium plan to allow the story of the NHK building and Kumamoto station to be widely known. Just think of the shock and anger exhibited here, and how it would have been unheralded if this whole stadium debacle hadn't transpired the way it did.

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  paulinusa at Jul. 19, 2015 - 12:03AM JST

  "Rival architect Kisho Kurokawa, who passed away in 2007, was one exception, having once remarked that “Nobody would want to go to the Ando-designed Omotesando Hills."

  Have to say he was wrong with that statement. Omotesando Hills is quite successful. And the interior design is unique and very interesting to my eyes.

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  DaDude at Jul. 19, 2015 - 07:13AM JST

  I would not hire Ando to design an outhouse. When he dies, he will be remembered as having made the world an even uglier place. His "uchippanashi" designs of unadorned, steel-reinforced concrete look like the blockhouses set up at Yucca Flats, Nevada to test the efficacy of atomic bombs, i.e., a bare-bones structure that would not be missed by anyone. Actually Ando's style is just a more extreme, uglier version of works by American Louis I. Kahn, and nothing original about them.

  To each his own. I am pretty sure his designs weren't considered "ugly" by those who hired him and I could live my life with caring or even noticing one of his structures. I guess the net also brings out armchair architects as well.

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  canadianbento at Jul. 19, 2015 - 09:13AM JST

  When it is not ones "Personal Money" no one cares.

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  Moonraker at Jul. 19, 2015 - 10:48AM JST

  @Dadude So should we not have an opinion about the architecture around us, even though it affects our lives? Should we just leave it to the "experts" and keep our heads down? Sounds like you have been here a long time.

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  stormcrow at Jul. 19, 2015 - 11:29AM JST

  Why don't countries just build a simple, standard type of stadium without all of the glitz and glitter? Whenever there's a building project for the Olympics or the World Cup, countries around the globe spend money like there's no tomorrow.

  Just build the same kinds of stadiums over and over again. It would save money and all or a portion of that money saved could be donated to poor countries to promote sports and international goodwill. Besides, do most people honestly care about who designed what or what a stadium looks like when they're more interested in sports anyway?

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  lationz at Jul. 19, 2015 - 04:23PM JST

  “Ninety percent of architects may think what he’s doing is idiotic, but they won’t raise their voices,” an architectural journalist confides.

  I think that about sums it up (along with a lot of other issues in Japan) basically

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  Cogito Ergo Sum at Jul. 19, 2015 - 04:58PM JST

  And to think these are the same people voraciously vying for contracts in developing nations!! Little wonder there's little development out there .

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  sangetsu03 at Jul. 20, 2015 - 05:48AM JST

  Ando is not alone in his ability to squander the taxpayer's money. If you want to know why infrastructure in America is in such bad shape it is because without exception these projects are never finished on time or within budget. The reason this is so is because public works and infrastructure projects are rife with corruption, graft, kickbacks, etc.

  You can do wiki searches on projects like the "big dig" in Boston, the Century Freeway in Los Angeles, and many others. The end costs of public works projects are now so high that they simply cannot be afforded. The graft is not limited only to the construction, but to the contracts for research, environmental impacts, defending lawsuits, etc. America's largest infrastructure was all built at a time when the population and tax revenue pool was much lower, but the money was spent much more efficiently in those days. Take a look at California's new high speed rail project, the original cost was to be $25 billion, it is now $70 billion, and the first shovel of earth still hasn't been turned.

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  wtfjapan at Jul. 20, 2015 - 11:35PM JST

  "contributions" from viewers. NHK is happy to waste these compulsory contributions on and then demand that evrybody with a TV pay!! youll get my contributions when you rip them from my cold dead hands.

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  Reckless at Jul. 21, 2015 - 10:32AM JST

  There are two issues. First did they actually squander the money and not give something of value; or, did they intentionally or recklessly understate the costs to get the contract. In my mind, if someone says they will build my house for XX yen, that is all I am paying and they can eat the overrun out of their own wallet.

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  genjuro at Jul. 24, 2015 - 08:47PM JST

  Funny, just a couple of hours after I read this someone came knocking on my door. It was an NHK lady.

  Good luck getting "contributions" from people who don't watch your shows, NHK. You'll need it.