POSTED: January 25th 2012
SpeakingUp
Tokyo 2020 CEO Mizuno talks about the power of sports and the Olympics
LAURA WALDEN / Sports Features Communications
LAUSANNE/INNSBRUCK: SportsFeatures.com sat down with ceo Masato Mizuno to talk about the new Tokyo 2020 bid and his feelings about how the power of sports can bring a new era to Japan.
The nation was hit hard last year after the earthquake and tsunami paid its toll on the north east part of the country.
Mizuno made the decision to retire from the helm of his family corporation, Mizuno Sportswear, to devote his energies and passion entirely to work as ceo of the Tokyo 2020 bid. He feels that this time the effect of the sports movement can really give back to the Japanese people and help the country to rebuild.
But he underlines the financial solidity of the new Olympic bid and it shouldn’t be seen as a plea for help. The city government has enough funding right now to stage the Games.
Where are you with the bid right now?
MASATO MIZUNO: The submission of the applicant file is February 15th so we are about ready to start printing this week on the 26th we are just fine tuning the texts in English and French.
Last June 17th the Sport Basic Law was passed and this law includes one clause that when Japan bids for large international events the government supports them. In the past when we requested the government was hesitant to give guarantees for seven years later.
This time because of this law we got the guarantee and this time is much better than last time.
Were there any residuals of the last bid?
MASATO MIZUNO: No, when we made the last bid we learned a lot. We read the evaluation report by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) very carefully and revised our new bid. Some of the locations weren’t favorable so we moved them.
Last time we spent over $150 million on the bid, this time we are doing it with less than half that much. Still the economy is not really favorable, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has a reserve of $4 billion over. So this is very solid, plus some of the revenue we can count on.
In order to run the Olympic Games this is no problem. Now for the bid budget that is different.
How are you scaling back the bid plan?
MASATO MIZUNO: We looked at all the expenses and downsized. Once we analyzed what to do we looked at the statistics from last time and knew where to scale down.
Do you think that the money that was spent enhanced the image of the country from a tourism standpoint?
MASATO MIZUNO: There are a number of big elements, number one we have to get public support. Last time for 2016 we had 55.6% if I could make an excuse that would be it. At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Japan did very well and we had a little too much confidence. We thought that since people loved the Games they would love to have them. But then September 15th Lehmann Brothers filed bankruptcy then everything changed, even Japan and Prime Minister Taro Aso made concrete measurements to promote the economy and distributed stimulus packages but this didn’t have effect until the middle of March of the next year.
But the survey was done in February so there was a lot of worry and fear for the Olympic Games.
This time the bid committee has two bodies, one is the executive board and the other is the council, Takeda is the chairman and I am the ceo. Then there is a council and Governor Ishihara is the head of all the cabinet members who function like a chamber of commerce to help to raise the public support.
We are the workforce and do more international work as they do the domestic work.
Where is the government support now?
We would like to have 67-75% and we are close to this now, then the actual survey by the IOC will be done in February of next year. We tried to make independent surveys exactly just like how they do in order to see how people think.
Another element is comprehensive planning of the bid and as I mentioned we studied the evaluation report and one by one the venues. For example the main stadium was facing the waterfront on three sides and this left us only one way to evacuate for traffic flow.
After studying the plan we also decided to change the location of the Olympic Village. But we will reveal more information after we submit the questionnaire.
We have to be careful that everything that we submit as we promise must be done exactly as we say and we have the basic applicant file and the basic plan that was done from last time.
Last time we set up the ‘Tokyo Big Change Ten Years Plan’ to make improvements on the city and there are four years left on this cycle. Now we have set up a new ten year plan for 2020 and this will accelerate things.
Last time we promised some things such as the highway that forms the ring road and this is already done for this bid.
Our keyword for the bid is the ‘Power of Sports’ and given the tragic events that have happened in Japan we really confirmed that there is a power within sports to help the areas that suffered. And this encouraged them a lot, people said ‘yeah sports are fun’ but this time sport has so much power to help us to rejuvenate from what has happened.
What did you take home from Innsbruck 2012 Youth Olympic Games?
MASATO MIZUNO: The concept for the Olympic Games has evolved and in the 21st century the size, cost and complexity must be reconsidered to keep them in scale. The Innsbruck Games were very effective, nice, compact and enjoyable because they were the right size.
And mostly in walking distance and Tokyo 2020 will be closely within a radius of 8 kilometers. The furthest one will be shooting and it will be a little over 35 minutes from the Olympic Village.
Tokyo is in the bid race with Baku, Doha, Istanbul, Madrid, and Rome to host the 2020 summer Games. The final vote will take place September 7, 2013 at the IOC session in Buenos Aires.
Keywords · Tokyo 2012 · summer Games · Masato Mizuno · Olympics
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