admin2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Abe made sure that an inspection tour by an International Olympic Committee (IOC) team got off to a heavyweight start.
At stake are an estimated three trillion yen (US$32 billion) in potential economic impact and the chance, Japanese officials say, to showcase Japan’s recovery from the 2011 disaster in the way the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games highlighted the nation’s return after its World War Two defeat.
“Tokyo 2020 will inspire many others, just as Tokyo did before in 1964,” Abe, who has been appointed as the bid’s supreme adviser, told the committee. The 1964 Games were the first Olympics to be held in Asia.
“I ask you to bring the torch right here to Tokyo.”
Tokyo, which lost the bidding for 2016 to Rio de Janeiro, faces Istanbul and Madrid this time around. — Eurosport.
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