Finally settling a long-standing dispute over the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike agreed Thursday that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will cover the full cost of building about 40 temporary facilities outside the capital where events will be held..

Koike said she made the pledge during a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Prime Minister's Office. Abe said the central government will help fund the Paralympics, which follow the Olympics, Koike told reporters.

"We will have as many as 40 (temporary) facilities. It's true it took considerable time to estimate how much they would cost, and how much we could save," Koike said after the meeting.

She declined, however, to provide the total cost because the metro government is still in the midst of estimating the expenses.

About half of the total will be shouldered by the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will raise funds mainly through ticket sales and sponsorship fees, Koike said.

The central government and the metro government will equally divide the remainder, she added.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga welcomed Koike's decision, saying it will "promote preparations" for the games.

But the announcement is a setback for the governor, who prolonged negotiations with other governments but won few concessions in her bid to cut costs.

Funding has been a divisive issue for the metro government, the organizing committee, the central government and other surrounding governments that were recruited to lower the cost of the sporting extravaganza.

On Tuesday, nine local political leaders, including Kanagawa Gov. Yuji Kuroiwa, Chiba Gov. Kensaku Morita, and Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda, met in Tokyo and criticized Koike for delaying the funding decision.

In its 2013 campaign for the 2020 hosting rights, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said it would organize "a compact Olympics" that would mostly make use of existing facilities in the capital to curb costs.

But the cost estimates ballooned, and Tokyo gave up on the compact theme. Instead, it decided to build temporary facilities outside Tokyo and ask neighboring governments to loan the use of existing facilities.

The related parties, however, failed to agree on how to split the burden.

The Kanagawa Prefectural Government says it urgently needs to start preparations for the sailing event near Enoshima Island, including organizing the first pre-Olympic matches for next year and potential compensation for fishing crews who would be unable to work during the games.

"We don't have time, and the situation is urgent. That's what I told (Gov. Koike)," Kanagawa Gov. Kuroiwa told reporters on Tuesday.

But after Koike made her decision about the construction costs on Thursday, Kuroiwa told reporters in Yokohama that another key issue was left unresolved: how to pay for the operating costs.

Kuroiwa said these should be covered by Tokyo as well.

The cost of the sailing event, for example, is estimated at around ¥8 billion, more than half of which is operating costs, including the fishing compensation, according to Kuroiwa.

Koike "didn't mention the operating costs, which is the most important issue for us," Kuroiwa told the news conference, which was livestreamed. "There has been no progress on the operating cost issue at all. Not even a single step."

Kuroiwa maintained that Kanagawa is doing its fair share. The Kanagawa Prefectural Government plans to cover all the construction and operating costs for permanent facilities that will be used even after the games, such as port facilities and widened roads on Enoshima.

Simply by relocating the sailing event to Enoshima from Tokyo, the total cost has been reduced to ¥8 billion from ¥41.4 billion, he said.

"The Tokyo Metropolitan Government initially planned to pay all of the ¥41.4 billion to build a breakwater. We have made a great contribution" to reducing the Olympic costs, Kuroiwa said.