Sapporo City will announce plans to cut budget by three billion yen ($26 million) to reach a projected net profit of roughly 18 billion yen ($188 million) this year, despite a projected 14 billion yen ($128 million) deficit in 2022, local media reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The sources told local broadcaster NHK that an investment fund would be formed to accelerate the capital cuts. At the same time, they said, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic organizing committee would be asked to contribute 3 billion yen for the capital deficit in 2022.
In an emailed statement, Matsuri Takahashi, a spokeswoman for the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, said that the finance minister will meet with Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, the governor of the Oita prefecture, and the city of Sapporo to discuss how the cities can help jointly address the issues “before the budget for the Olympics is finalized this July.”
“We hope the meeting will provide solutions in time for the 2020 budget process,” she wrote.
At the end of 2018, Sapporo officials announced that they would present a private vision for cost reductions to Tokyo and the International Olympic Committee. Mayor Taro Aso has also floated cutting utility bills and pursuing an “enterprise strategy” by partnering with local, government and private investment firms. He has even suggested that Japan could sit down with the Olympic committee to consider the possibility of receiving the capital for the 2020 Games in perpetuity.
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