TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will serve as a top adviser to a panel supporting Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Japanese Olympic Committee president Tsunekazu Takeda said Thursday that Noda was asked to assume the post and for the government to give its full support to the bid.
Noda accepted the request and was quoted by Takeda as saying, “Let us do our best to make this bid a success,” Kyodo news agency reported.
Tokyo, which campaigned for the 2016 Olympics but lost to Rio de Janeiro, is up against Doha, Qatar; Istanbul, Turkey; Madrid; and Rome. The candidate cities will submit their plans for the Games to the International Olympic Committee by February 2012, and the IOC will select the host city in September 2013.
The panel will support Tokyo’s 2020 bid committee, which is headed by Takeda.
In its bid to land the 2016 Games, Tokyo had an estimated $176 million budget, but the bid suffered from a lack of public support and was eliminated in the second round of voting.
Tokyo is promoting its 2020 bid to be a symbol of Japan’s recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left nearly 20,000 people dead or missing on Japan’s northeast coast. If Tokyo wins the right to host the 2020 Games, the JOC said regions affected by the earthquake, tsunami and the ensuing nuclear crises could host some events such as soccer.
