XtraTime Web Desk: Tokyo Olympic organizers are mulling the option of staging the quadrennial event in July next year. The Tokyo organizers along with International Olympic Committee (IOC) are in final stages of talks to set the new dates for the Games, said Japanese media.
The Tokyo Olympics which got postponed last week due to the coronavirus pandemic, will most likely have its opening ceremony in 2021 on July 23 and closing ceremony on Aug. 8, each a day earlier on the calendar than the original 2020 plan, said public broadcaster NHK on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a delay of about one year on Tuesday after a call with IOC President Thomas Bach. It is the first postponement in the 124-year history of the modern Olympics, although several – including the 1940 Tokyo Games – were canceled due to war.
The delay is a huge blow to Japan, which has invested $12 billion in the run-up, although financial markets initially cheered by the decision, as some investors had anticipated cancellation.
Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Sunday the government, now compiling economic-stimulus measures that Abe said will be the biggest ever, will take into account that the Olympic delay will push back several trillions of yen (tens of billions of dollars) of demand to next year.
“If demand is being pushed back until next year, that means the same amount of demand will evaporate this year. We’ll take this into account” in compiling the stimulus package, Nishimura told a television program.