Tokyo Olympics organisers added that they are working on more than 200 ideas to simplify and reduce costs for the rescheduled Games.
Tokyo Olympics organisers are focusing on their new Games start date in 2021, they stressed on Friday -- even if the coronavirus outbreak complicates preparations for the remade extravaganza. At his first remote news conference on Friday, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto emphasised that Games organisers are aiming towards the new start date of July 23, 2021, regardless of how long it takes to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
The organising committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games announced steps on Tuesday to stem the spread of the coronavirus along the torch relay route, including cancelling some events and restricting public access to others.
The rearranged Tokyo Games must be held "at any cost" in 2021, Japan's Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto said on Tuesday.
Tokyo 2020 organising committee chief executive Toshiro Muto said, on Tuesday, it is not clear who will pay the extra costs arising from the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.
However, at his regular weekly news conference, Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya said the reports were "optimistic" and that nothing had been announced.
'As to the breakdown...I also understand that the IOC has stated it is too soon and too early to tell.'
The opening ceremony will also take place without major Olympic sponsors, the companies said on Tuesday, dealing another blow to a slimmed-down Games as more athletes tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Chinese Olympic Committee offered vaccine doses for participants of this year's Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing 2022 Winter Games
The next challenge for Tokyo organisers is developing measures to help prevent a COVID-19 outbreak during the Games and how much the delay will cost Japanese taxpayers.
The spread of a new coronavirus could throw "cold water over the growing momentum of the 2020 Games," Tokyo Organising Committee CEO Toshiro Muto said. Japanese government officials including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have said the government would work hard to minimise any impact from the virus outbreak on the Games, which start on July 24.
Olympic and Paralympic tickets purchased by overseas residents will be refunded
'United by Emotion' was revealed as the motto for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics on Monday as organisers look to hammer home the message of diversity and inclusion. Tennis player Naomi Osaka, who was born in Japan to a Haitian father and Japanese mother but raised in the United States, narrated the motto's promotional video.
The Tokyo Olympics were postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the coronavirus. The pandemic has continued to spread, casting a shadow over the viability of hosting the Games next year.
Tokyo 2020 organisers will hold meetings with the Japanese government and local Tokyo Metropolitan Government in September to work through various scenarios.
He said it was an infringement of copyright but did not threaten legal action.
The organisers took the unprecedented step of postponing the Olympics in March because of the pandemic and the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who has declared he will host the Olympics "at any cost", is pressing ahead with the preparations.
The Olympic rings monument installed in Tokyo Bay for the 2020 Summer Games was temporarily removed for maintenance on Thursday and will return in December when Japan heads into the final stretch of preparations for the resheduled event.
Following the decision in March to postpone the Games, the Olympics are now due to begin on July 23, 2021.
The National Stadium, set to host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, is one of the venues that has been successfully secured for 2021.
Athletes will need to provide a negative COVID-19 test taken less than 72 hours before arriving in Japan for the Olympics and will be tested "every 96-120 hours" during the Games, according to a report published by organisers.
Little-known retired swimmer Naoko Imoto will be a last-minute stand-in to receive the Olympic flame during a scaled back handover in Athens on Thursday, Tokyo 2020 organisers said. The Tokyo 2020 team had contacted Imoto, who lives in Greece, only hours before making the announcement on Wednesday evening in the Japanese capital.
Shinzo Abe had been all but synonymous with Tokyo 2020, heavily involved in the winning bid in 2013 and dressing up as video game character Mario during the closing ceremony of the Rio Games three years later.
Tokyo Olympics organisers are preparing to host the Games next year even if the global coronavirus pandemic hasn't eased substantially, organising committee chief executive Toshiro Muto said on Tuesday. Muto said he hopes Tokyo 2020 could be the benchmark in a post-pandemic world.
The postponed Olympic Games will now begin on July 23 next year and run until August 8, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said on Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to plan and prepare for them properly this year. The Games were postponed last week - the first such delay in the 124-year history of the modern Olympics. The move was a huge blow for Japan, which invested $13 billion in the run-up to the event and raised $3 billion from domestic sponsors.
The International Olympic Committee has been advised by the World Health Organization that there is no case for contingency plans to cancel or relocate the Tokyo 2020 Olympics over the coronavirus outbreak, the IOC's Coordination Commission head said on Friday.
Due to the delay the Beijing Games will now start just over six months after Tokyo.
The Olympics were due to begin on Friday with an extravagant opening ceremony in the National Stadium but the Games have instead been delayed until July 23, 2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Many Japanese and medical experts oppose staging the 2020 Games as planned from July 23, after already being postponed a year, as their nation suffers a fourth infection wave.
Tug of war, sumo wrestling, surfing and frisbee throwing are among 26 sports leading the charge for an Olympic place.
Japan is eager to quell fears the Games might be called off, postponed or moved to a different location due to the virus. And despite its optimism over the Olympics, Japan has cancelled numerous sporting events.
Japan's public has been lukewarm about the Games amid a resurgence in new coronavirus infections and worries that an influx of visitors may create a super-spreader event, straining an already-stretched medical system. Only around 20% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Plans that had been almost a decade in the making were shredded as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the IOC and Japanese government to take the unprecedented decision to postpone the Olympics for a year.
Japan is not making any preparations to postpone the 2020 Olympics, the government's top spokesman said on Wednesday, stressing Tokyo's resolve to host the event as scheduled despite the global spread of coronavirus.
The Tokyo Games, from July 23 to Aug. 8, coincide with the year's hottest weather in Tokyo where the temperature can rise to 35 degree Celsius (95F) or more. The 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics were held in October.
Here are some areas where costs have grown, and where income that had been expected will not materialise.
Addressing a parliamentary committee, medical adviser Shigeru Omi said organisers should explain to the public why they are going ahead in the middle of a pandemic.
A government spokesman said there was "no truth" to a report in Britain's Times newspaper that the government had privately concluded the Games would have to be cancelled.
Athletes arriving in Tokyo for next year's Olympic Games, postponed from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be exempt from the 14-day isolation period Japan has imposed on anyone arriving from overseas to help stop the virus spreading.
The four-month event has been hit by several high-profile runner cancellations as celebrities have pulled out, citing late notice and worries about drawing crowds during the pandemic.
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