Olympics - Tokyo an inspirational choice for Games, PM Abe tells IOC
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TOKYO (REUTERS) - Tokyo would be an inspirational choice to host the 2020 Olympic Games, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Olympic officials on Monday, with Japan keen to showcase its recovery from a devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Mr Abe made sure that an inspection tour by an International Olympic Committee (IOC) team got off to a heavyweight start.
At stake are an estimated three trillion yen (S$40 billion) in potential economic impact and the chance, Japanese officials say, to showcase Japan's recovery from the 2011 disaster in the way the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games highlighted the nation's return after its World War Two defeat.
"Tokyo 2020 will inspire many others, just as Tokyo did before in 1964," Mr Abe, who has been appointed as the bid's supreme adviser, told the committee. The 1964 Games were the first Olympics to be held in Asia.
