Tokyo Olympics sees more than 100 demonstrate against city hosting the Games
Wednesday 24 July 2019 17:28, UK
At least 100 people gathered in Tokyo as a protest took place over the hosting of the Olympics, which takes place in exactly a year's time in Japan.
On Tuesday, protest leaders told a news conference that the Olympics damaged the environment and argued that the money spent on the Games would be better used elsewhere.
There were participants from Paris and Los Angeles at the protest with the cities hosting the Olympics in 2024 and 2028 respectively.
Danielle Simonnet, a Parisian politician at the protest said: ''It is important for us, who are opposed to the Olympics in 2024, to come here today to this international meeting against the Olympics Games.
"We want to show our solidarity with the Japanese who are against 2020 and our friends from Los Angeles who are against 2028."
The latest budget figures for Tokyo 2020, released in December 2018, put the total cost of the Games at $12.6 billion, well above their original estimate at under $7 billion.
The Japanese government has been criticised for allowing the cost of the Olympics to rise while people in the area devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami are still struggling.
"To return to Tokyo afterward and see all the money plunged into the Olympics while people still suffer in Fukushima was mind-blowing for me," former athlete and academic Jules Boykoff said on Tuesday after returning from the area.
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike last week defended the cost of hosting the Games, saying the Paralympics in particular would build a legacy by creating better accessibility for Japan's rapidly ageing society.
The Olympic Games run from July 24 - August 9 next year.
