Tokyo's Olympic bid committee grilled

Tokyo's 2020 Olympic bid committee faced some tough, rapid-fire questions regarding concerns about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, Japan Olympic Committee officials said on Thursday.

According to the officials, Tsunekazu Takeda, president of both the Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee and the JOC, was inundated with questions on the situation at the stricken power plant 250 km northeast of Tokyo, at a news conference in Buenos Aires, ahead of the International Olympic Committee's decision on which city will host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

"Radiation levels in Tokyo are still the same as in London, New York and Paris," Takeda reiterated. He added that not one out of 35 million people in the area has been affected and everywhere is "completely safe" and that there is "nothing to worry about".

"We are not concerned about the impact on Tokyo and on 2020," his committee officials quoted him as saying.

Sources close to the matter said that Takeda opted not to divulge detailed information on the Fukushima crisis but maintained the government was doing "its very best" to deal with the situation, stating that by 2020 the issue would be resolved. Takeda's strategy, the sources said, is to distance Tokyo's bid from the ongoing Fukushima crisis, and focus on what Tokyo has to offer the Games as a potential host city.

Xinhua

(China Daily 09/06/2013 page11)