A group organizing public lotteries in Japan plans to offer special lotteries over five years from fiscal 2016 to help raise some ¥10 billion for the construction of facilities related to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, people familiar with the idea said Friday.
The group, formed by the nation's 47 prefectures and major cities, is also planning to organize special lotteries over four years from the same year, starting in April 2016, to raise about ¥6 billion for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, they said.
A Japanese committee that bid to host the 2020 Olympics mentioned the lottery plan in a candidature file presented to the International Olympic Committee for consideration.
The funds to be raised through the Olympic lotteries, however, will not go toward financing construction of a new National Stadium in Tokyo, which is slated to be the games' centerpiece.
An original stadium plan for the main Olympic venue was scrapped amid public uproar over ballooning costs, forcing the government to solicit new designs to keep costs down.