Japan begin oly preparations

Preparations for 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics are already underway with Japan sizing up plans to ready its sporting facilities and urban infrastructure, an officials said on Monday.

Fresh from getting the nod from IOC to host 2020 Games, Japan will reconsider the idea of setting up a new sports agency, as was floated before Tokyo failed to secure the 2016 Games, with the aim of further promoting sports at the national level in the run-up to the Olympics.

Japan is planning to see an amalgamation of training programs for both Olympic and Paralympic athletes, as part of a broader strategy to consolidate the Games, officials said.

In addition, they said Japan will seek to make training facilities available to both Olympic and Paralympic athletes and the endeavours will also fall under the education ministry and its new agency’s jurisdiction.

An Olympic organising committee will also be established in February as the city looks to upgrade its sporting facilities in the capital and build an Olympic Village. The committee will oversee the government’s plans to revitalize Tokyo’s waterfront area as one of the major focal points of its 2020 objectives.

The Tokyo Bay Olympic village will have 21 venues on waterfront sites and 85 percent of the venues will be within 8 km of each other, according to provisional plans. With funds to the tune of $4.5 billion allocated for the Games, 10 new permanent sporting venues will be built and the committee will also oversee the renovation of three venues used when Tokyo first hosted the Games in 1964.

The centrepiece of Tokyo’s Olympic plan is to revamp the Kasumigaoka National Stadium and the overhaul will be coordinated by British architecture firm Zaha Hadid Architects.