Regarding the June 18 article "Ishihara eyes another Olympics bid, this time 2020": I see that once again Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara intends to waste taxpayer money, this time by bidding for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Tokyo used ¥15 billion in taxpayer money for the campaign to host the 2016 Summer Olympics (which it lost to Rio de Janeiro). Nobody really wanted the 2016 games, and now the governor is at it again.
Ishihara wants to show that Japan has recovered and join hands of the disaster-hit areas with the whole of Japan. Does this guy actually listen to what he says? Only the areas hit by the March 11 earthquake and earthquake are in need of recovery; the rest of the country is continuing along as usual.
More than three months after the disaster, we find a huge number of people still living in evacuation centers, their homes destroyed or off limits. How does building more sports arenas help those people? Instead of wasting a special ¥400 billion fund on hosting games that help almost no one, use the money to put taxpaying citizens into real homes.
The governor should be ashamed of himself for feeding his ego as the one who brought the Olympics back to Tokyo, rather than using the money to help his fellow countrymen.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.