Media reports have raised suspicions that more than ¥200 million that Japan's bid committee for the Summer Olympic Games paid in 2013 to a consultant firm in Singapore may have been used to buy votes in Tokyo's successful bid for the 2020 games. The scandal illustrates how Japan is bottomlessly corrupt as a state.
At the time the payment was made, the biggest obstacle for Tokyo's bid, as the then education minister has acknowledged, was the overseas concern over the radioactive fallout from the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The alleged payment to the consultancy in question and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's remark during the bid campaign that the Fukushima situation was "under control" can be connected as things arising in the same context of attempts to cover up the nuclear problem. The prime minister's false claim during Tokyo's official campaign for the 2020 games and the suspected bribery scheme behind the scenes constitute a perfect picture of corruption.
The scheming successfully brought the 2020 Olympic Games to Tokyo. But preparations for the games have met with unexpected obstacles. The design for the new National Stadium as the main venue of the event was finally adopted after a series of ugly twists and turns but the design's extensive use of wood has left open the embarrassing question of where to place the Olympic flame. The cost of building other venues will also reportedly increase four-fold from the initial estimate to ¥300 billion.