TOKYO -- The Tokyo organizing committee has estimated that the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will cost an additional 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion), Nikkei learned on Wednesday.
The price tag for the 2020 Games will increase due to being postponed, incurring additional labor costs and venue rental fees.
In December, the committee said the Olympic budget would be 1.35 trillion yen, of which the committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government would each pay 600 billion yen with the remaining 150 billion yen provided by the national government.
On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach agreed to postpone the games one year until the summer of 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Additional costs estimated by the organizing committee include those for re-renting competition venues, re-booking hotels for Olympic officials, and extended labor costs for committee staff and security guards, among other items.
According to sources, the 300-billion yen estimate could come down depending on the outcome of negotiations with the many Olympic stakeholders.
No decision has been made as to who will bear the costs of the postponement, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, national government, organizing committee and IOC are all liable to some degree.
Toshiro Muto, director general of the committee, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the issue of cost sharing will be discussed between all stakeholders.
