Roundup: Japan gov't can't promise IOC new Olympic stadium to be ready by 2020

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has urged the Japanese government to have the new national stadium built by January in time for the 2020 Olympics Games, but Olympic minister Toshiaki Endo said Tuesday said he could not guarantee that the IOC's deadline would be met.

In a meeting Tuesday between Japan's Minister in charge of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, Toshiaki Endo and IOC Vice President John Coates, who is also chairperson for the Coordination Commission for Tokyo 2020, Endo told Coates that even for April 2020, the schedule would be tight.

"It was going to be April on a very tight schedule. We can ask the contractors to push it, but we have no idea if it's doable," Endo said, adding that, "Securing the materials, the workers and technicians is difficult so we can't shorten the schedule easily."

Yoshiro Mori, who heads the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, was also in attendance at Tuesday's meeting, heard the IOC's wishes, which included having the stadium ready by January 2020, so it can undergo a number of tests before the Games officially opens in August. "The stadium has to be available for ceremonies and rehearsals. They need to have the handover to the organizing committee by January 2020,"said Coates.

Endo maintained in the meeting that the IOC's demands were a" heavy request"that he could not accept immediately.

The pair also heard from Coates that as a concession the stadium needs not have 80,000 seats as per the original design that was unceremoniously scrapped by the government due to ballooning costs for the futuristic design by the London-based architect Zaha Hadid.

The government said it will confirm its new design plans by the end of this month, with the scaled down version hopefully coming in within budget and Zaha Hadid has also offered to supply variations of the original design for the Games. "I think we'll be able to find a way to keep it under 200 billion yen," Endo said to this point, adding that contractors would be picked from early next month.

The rising estimations of the cost of building the new national stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics triggered political debate about revising the government's current plan as public criticism was mounting, although those charged with selecting the design have maintained 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 have cost an estimated 252 billion yen (2 billion U.S. dollars), leaping from an initial estimate of just 162.5 billion yen.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party were criticized for the ballooning costs, leading Abe to scrap the design, as his public support rate had already plummeted following his ramming through parliament unconstitutional war bills to boost the role of Japan's forces at home and abroad.

The prime minister conceded himself in a 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, although the IOC is determined to keep the plans on track and to push for the stadium's completion by January 2020, as evidenced by Coates'push Tuesday.

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 recently that 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. But his advise was in vain as the prime minister ditched the iconic design that would have seen two giant arches sweep over a retractable roof, with the overall stadium resembling a futuristic bicycle helmet.

Notable architects and contractors here have also 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, if a design similar to the original is selected.

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.

Concerns have been raised that following the IOC approving changes in plans for other 2020 venues in Japan, that have saved more than 1 billion U.S. dollars, that 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.

In contravention of the IOC's goals of lowering hosting-costs of the Games, Tokyo's new national stadium would have far exceeded 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