A  constant concern about the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics is its cost. Projected operating expenses for the games as of the end of last year was ¥1.35 trillion based on calculations made last May. Although the figure is smaller than it once was, the International Olympic Committee says it is still too high. Given that measures to address weather-related issues such as typhoons and high temperatures have yet to be factored into the budget, the cost could go even higher.

According to the Tokyo Shimbun, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the central government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government have together established a committee to “unify operating costs” in order to monitor them more effectively. However, this committee, which has only held one meeting, has not addressed the budget of the organizing committee itself.

Cost is the main reason for the all-volunteer character of much of the 2020 Olympics staffing plans, and last year a blogger named Motoya Okutani wrote a post about volunteers that attracted attention. Okutani is a sports pharmacist. He monitors athletes’ use of drugs and carries out testing, and in the blog post he objected to the organizers’ solicitation of volunteer sports pharmacists to carry out anti-doping procedures during the games.