Tokyo Games sponsors pay $3.3 billion, but more still needed

In this April 28, 2013, file photo, a Boeing 787 plane of the All Nippon Airways, ANA, prepares to land after a test flight at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Domestic sponsors have already contributed a record of $3.3 billion to help pay for the Tokyo Olympics. That's at least twice as much as any previous Games. Now they're being asked to pay millions more to cover some of the soaring costs of the one-year postponement. Among the domestic sponsors is Japanese airline ANA, which posted losses of $1.8 billion through the first half of the fiscal year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File) In this April 28, 2013, file photo, a Boeing 787 plane of the All Nippon Airways, ANA, prepares to land after a test flight at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Domestic sponsors have already contributed a record of $3.3 billion to help pay for the Tokyo Olympics. That's at least twice as much as any previous Games. Now they're being asked to pay millions more to cover some of the soaring costs of the one-year postponement. Among the domestic sponsors is Japanese airline ANA, which posted losses of $1.8 billion through the first half of the fiscal year. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

By YURI KAGEYAMA and STEPHEN WADE / Associated Press December 12, 2020 6 min read

TOKYO (AP) – Domestic sponsors already have contributed a record $3.3 billion to help pay for the Tokyo Olympics. That’s at least twice as much as any previous games.

But it’s still not enough.

Now they’re being asked to pay millions more to cover some of the soaring costs of the one-year postponement.

This comes as Japanese businesses are battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, raising doubts about re-investing in an Olympics that may be short on fans but long on pandemic-related rules to discourage tourists, sightseeing and spending.

“We are in the process of asking for additional sponsorship (payments) from our partners,” organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto said last week as he detailed why the postponement will cost organizers and Japanese taxpayers an extra $2.8 billion. “The sponsors have expressed the willingness to contribute to the games next year. But they have not specified an amount.”