In the face of strong local opposition, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) and Sapporo will explore the idea of changing the city’s 2030 Winter Olympics bid to one for the 2034 edition.
The move comes despite the re-election of Katsuhiro Akimoto, who was supportive of Sapporo’s Olympic bid, as the city's mayor on Sunday over two candidates who were opposed to it.
But exit polls by the Hokkaido Shimbun showed that 60% of Sapporo voters opposed the bid, while 34.9% were supportive. A separate Jiji Press exit poll also showed that 53% of Sapporo voters were opposed to the 2030 bid, compared with the 27% who supported it.