Tokyo to remove more 2020 Olympic venues far outside city due to spiralling costs

A Tokyo government panel is set to propose removing more 2020 Olympic venues far outside the city, some of them being hundreds of miles away, as costs have been out of control.

Among the stadiums being reviewed are those for volleyball, swimming, rowing and canoe sprint, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The panel would propose moving the rowing and canoe sprint events to Tome city, about 435 km northeast, or a nearly three-hour train ride from the capital, instead of holding them in the Tokyo Bay, the agency quoted a Tokyo metropolitan government official as saying.

In its winning bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2013, organizers promised a compact Olympic Games, with 28 of the 31 competition venues within a five-mile radius of the Olympic village.

Originally, only shooting, modern pentathlon and a football stadium would be outside the city.

The organizers already have moved the venues for basketball, taekwondo and track cycling outside of Tokyo to maximize existing facilities.

President of the Tokyo organizing committee Yoshiro Mori acknowledged in July that the cost of building seven temporary venues for the Olympics has risen to an estimated 2.6 billion U.S. dollars, up from the initial estimate of 690 million dollars.

Mori said the original figures were the result of sloppy calculations of the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Olympic committee.

Preparations for the 2020 Games have been plagued by a series of scandals including allegations of plagiarism of the official logo and bribery in the bidding process. Endi