Tokyo slashes building costs for 2020 Olympic Games by further ¥41.3 billion

Tokyo has slashed its budget for 2020 Olympic facilities by an additional ¥41.3 billion ($360 million), an official said on Tuesday, amid mounting pressure to reduce the cost of hosting the huge sports event. Olympic planning officials have made the cuts by changing construction methods and installing cheaper temporary seats in some venues instead of permanent ones. This would reduce the total cost of building venues for the 2020 Games to ¥182.2 billion ($1.60 billion) from a previous plan of ¥224.1 billion ($1.96 billion), a Tokyo official said. Last year, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike ordered the plans for three venues to be revised as overall costs for the games spiraled to more than $25 billion -- four times the initial estimates when Tokyo won the 2020 bid. In June, the International Olympic Committee praised Japan for slashing 2020 costs from around $20 billion to $13 billion, but warned that soaring budgets could yet deter other cities for bidding for the games.