Sapporo is the favorite for the organization of the 2030 Winter Games, but its candidacy, already criticized by part of Japanese public opinion, could be weighed down by suspicions of corruption linked to the Tokyo Olympics.
In August, Haruyuki Takahashi, a former member of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, was arrested. And new corruption charges were brought against him last week as part of an ongoing investigation.
This scandal falls badly for Sapporo, which has already organized the Winter Olympics in 1972, and which is in competition with Vancouver, in Canada, and Salt Lake City, in the United States.
The president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, Yasuhiro Yamashita, canceled his planned visit to Lausanne in mid-September to discuss this candidacy with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), citing a scheduling problem.
Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto, who was also due to be on the trip, said the cancellation had “nothing to do with the Tokyo Olympics corruption case”.
But the cancellation has grabbed headlines across Japan as investigators continue to conduct searches.
Reignited opposition
Opposition to the Games, already strong in Japan in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been reignited by these corruption scandals which implicate major figures in business and politics.
The daily Asahi Shimbun called, in an editorial, for Sapporo to “pause” its candidacy until corruption investigations are resolved. The same newspaper had called for the Tokyo Games to be canceled last year, two months before they kicked off.
However, experts believe that these revelations will not have a lasting impact on Sapporo’s status as favourites. With cities showing themselves to be more and more reluctant to spend fortunes to host the Games, the IOC cannot be very careful in its choice of a host for 2030.
“Very good” application
“If Sapporo comes forward, its bid is very good from a technical point of view,” said Michael Payne, IOC marketing director between 1989 and 2004, who played a major role in the financial transformation of the Games thanks to the partnership with sponsors. “I think it’s primarily a local political issue,” he added.
For Andrew Zimbalist, an expert in sports economics, the scandal “will continue to be a problem in Japan”, but “will fade into international memory”. According to him, Japanese officials will “simply acknowledge to the IOC that they have had bad actors involved and that they will clean up”.
Zimbalist still believes that the changes to the qualifying process will help Sapporo to be less in the spotlight than Tokyo has been.
Indeed, before, the cities had to spend fortunes to present their candidacy and compete before a winner was elected.
Now the process is taking place away from the public eye, and there is flexibility in both the number of applicants and the date for choosing a host city. The only deadline is for confirmation, which is to take place in September or October 2023 during the IOC session in Mumbai, India.
“The IOC does not want to find itself in a situation where a country hosting the Games does not have a stable government, a strong economy and reliable weather,” Zimbalist said. “Sapporo has so many assets that they will weigh more than the distant memory of this scandal. »