Following the release of an International Olympic Committee (IOC) public opinion poll conducted in February that said that only 56 per cent of respondents support Tokyo’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Dr. Ichiro Kono, Chair and CEO of Tokyo 2016 released a statement.
He said Tokyo 2016 officials respect the decision of the IOC to release the data in their report in September, “but we can confirm that since the highly successful IOC Evaluation visit, our own polls and independent polls consistently show high rates of support”.
He indicated the most recent independent poll conducted by Yomiuri Shimbun at the end of April among 3,000 eligible voters showed national support for Tokyo 2016 had risen to 76 per cent (97 million Japanese).
Also, a poll commissioned by the bid committee in January showed 69 per cent of Tokyo citizens (23 million) supported the bid.
Kono said, “following the IOC Evaluation Commission visit we have commissioned another poll. The results from this poll will be issued very soon and we are confident they will show increasing support for Tokyo 2016”.
Kono added, “…Tokyo 2016 is assured massive TV viewing figures both in Japan and across the whole Asian region with three billion potential viewers in Japan’s prime time TV viewing footprint. This will make a significant contribution to the Olympic movement”.
