Tokyo Olympics 2020: Price of hosting opening, closing ceremonies rises 40 percent to $118 million, says organising committee

Tokyo: The price of the opening and closing ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics has risen about 40 percent according to numbers released by the organising committee. [caption id=“attachment_3536739” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] Toshiro Muto, the chief executive of the games, told executive committee members on Friday that the cost for the ceremonies would be capped at 13 billion yen, about $118 million. Tokyo estimated that cost at 9.1 billion yen — about $82 billion — when Tokyo was awarded the games in 2013. Despite the increase, Muto said the privately funded operating budget of 600 billion yen — about $5.5 billion — would be unchanged. He said there was a reserve fund for such increases. Muto said “using London Olympics spending as a model, I think this is the minimum we need to spend to get the job done.” The organizing committee said last year that Mansai Nomura, who is a renowned actor in traditional Japanese theatre, would be the chief creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics. Overall, Tokyo is spending at least $20 billion to ready the city for the Olympics. Excluding the operating budget, the rest comes from the national, city and regional governments.