Japan's 2020 bid city decision put on hold

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-25 14:47

TOKYO: The identity of Japan's bid city for the 2020 Summer Games could remain a mystery until 2011, the country's top Olympic official has said.

Tokyo, which lost out to Rio de Janeiro in October's International Olympic Committee (IOC) vote for the 2016 Games, faces a proposed joint bid from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"We will look at what's happening world-wide and devise a strategy," Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) president Tsunekazu Takeda was quoted as saying in Friday's Nikkan Sports.

"It's possible we'll postpone the decision until the spring of 2011. Obviously we would like to decide quickly but this time it's a different situation so there's no need to rush it."

Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara has said the Japanese capital, Asia's first Olympic host city 45 years ago, has a "civic duty" to dust itself down from the failed 2016 bid and reapply to host the 2020 Games.

The city secured a contingency fund of $4 billion for the 2016 Games, although JOC officials were said to have favoured a bid for 2020 from the start.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only cities to have suffered a nuclear attack, have expressed an interest in tabling a joint-bid for the 2020 Olympics.

Rio won the October 2 IOC vote for 2016, defeating Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo. London will host the 2012 Summer Games.