Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda said it was his call to approve the more than $2 million payment to Singaporean consulting firm Black Tidings in connection with Tokyo's winning bid to host the 2020 Games.

"I approved it in the end," Takeda said Monday of the money, which was paid in two installments in the months leading up Tokyo's bid victory in September 2013. "It was done by the book. ... The bid office carefully examined it, and I signed off on it in the end."

Takeda, however, denied he took an active role in securing the contract with Black Tidings, a company linked to disgraced former International Association of Athletics Federations President Lamine Diack.