Roundup: Skyrocketing costs for Tokyo's new Olympic stadium divides gov't, outrages public

Rising estimations of the cost of building the new national stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has triggered political debate about revising the government's current plan as public criticism mounts, while those charged with selecting the design said Thursday they were baffled at why the cost had ballooned so much.

If the construction of the new national stadium go ahead as per Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid's futuristic design, its completion would now cost an estimated 252 billion yen (2 billion U.S. dollars), a price tag confirmed by Japan's education and sports minister Hakubun Shimomura last month, leaping from an initial estimate of 162.5 billion yen.

Both opposition and some members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party have criticized the ballooning costs, leading the government to consider revising the stadium's design.

But while there are also strong calls in the government to stick to the original plan, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Japan's top government spokesperson saying that such a scenario would call for the government to clearly explain the reasons behind the rising costs to a skeptical public, concerns are now rife that the stadium will not be ready in time to use for the 2019 Rugby World Cup also hosted by Japan.

The prime minister said himself in a recent parliamentary session that if the designs are changed at this point, the likelihood would increase that the stadium would not be completed in time for the 2020 Olympics.

While wrangling continues between government officials over whether to lower the costs or forge ahead, with the latter choice meaning that the new stadium, once built, would be the most expensive sports stadium in the world, rising above the 1.6 billion U.S. dollar price tag of the MetLife Stadium which opened in 2010 and hosts both the New York Jets and Giants football teams, the company charged with actually building the stadium said it remained in the dark Thursday.

With many senior officials tied up with the passage of an unpopular set of war bills through the lower house earlier Thursday, an issue rejected by the public for its unconstitutionality and reversal of Japan's long-held pacifist stance, and one which will almost certainly see support for Abe and his administration tumble, creating a further headache for the local government and the education and sports ministry who need the public's approval for the stadium to be built, the ministry also said they'd heard no new news on the issue.

A senior official from the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, was quoted as saying Thursday that he " hadn't heard anything from the prime minister's office," and that "It must be unavoidable given the big public backlash."

Similarly, a spokesperson for the company building the stadium, Takenaka Corp, said, "We have yet to get hold of details and will watch the development."

As concerns and confusion mount about the price and readiness of the stadium for the Olympics, Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who was in charge of the committee who originally selected Zaha Hadid's design, told a press conference Thursday he had no idea why the costs had skyrocketed so much.

He said that factoring in the effects of last year's consumption tax hike and rising prices he could understand why estimates had increased somewhat, but said that he couldn't understand what other factors could've lead to such a monumental increase in cost, but warned against the government revising the design, which he believed secured Tokyo the original bid, or extending the construction time frame.

Other notable architects and contractors here have, however, stated that to complete the construction within budget and on time, the stadium's iconic arches may have to be cut as well as its retractable roof, in addition some of the stadium's 80,000 seats may also have to be made to be temporary, authorities close to the also said.

The notion of dropping Hadid's iconic design altogether, in favor of using cheaper, local designs, has raised concerns that such a plan could ruin Japan's reputation and lead to a number of lawsuits, further tainting the Games before it has even started.

But concerns have been raised that following the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approving changes in plans for other 2020 venues in Japan, that have saved more than 1 billion U.S. dollars, if a progressive country like Japan with a lot of the basic infrastructure for the Olympics already in place in Tokyo has to go into further debt to complete construction on time, less modern or affable countries will have a tough job pitching for the Olympics in the future, as the IOC looks to lower the Games' costs but maintain extremely high standards.

Previously, Shimomura had called on the Tokyo Metropolitan government to pay around 50 billion yen of the stadium's construction costs, which sparked fury from local city officials, including Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe, who slammed the central government's dictatorial demands and likened their behavior to the roguish Imperial Army of yesteryear. Masuzoe has also criticized the central government's money-grabbing attempts as being unconstitutional.

"It's written in the constitution that you cannot establish a new law without gaining a majority of votes in a local referendum, " Masuzoe said, adding that the citizens of Tokyo would be further frustrated to hear the government complain that they couldn't build the stadium on time or within budget.

It will, however, be Toshiaki Endo, current minister in charge of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, who took over from Shimomura who also held the post, toward the end of last month, who will have to mediate the growing spat between the metropolitan and central government and resolve this prickly financial issue, as well as the local citizens' concerns that the debt from the Olympics will be passed on to the city and be a burden for generations to come.

In contravention of the IOC's goals of lowering hosting-costs of the Games, Tokyo's new national stadium far exceeds the 455 million U.S. dollars Beijing paid for its iconic "Bird's Nest" stadium built for the 2008 Olympics, and the 680 million U.S. dollars spent by London for its new stadium for the 2012 London Olympics. Endi