Cost of Tokyo Olympic Games postponement due to Covid-19 estimated at $3.9 billion

The Olympic Rings adorn an event square. Photo / Photosport

The one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics has been revealed as costing just under US$2 billion (NZD$3.9 billion).

Japan's Kyodo news agency and the Yomiuri newspaper both reported the figure on Sunday, citing unnamed sources close to games organisers.

The reported cost of the delay, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is in line with repeated estimates over the last several months. The organisers, the Tokyo metro government and the Japanese national government are expected to report next month how the costs will be shared.

The International Olympic Committee has said it would chip in about $650 million to cover some of the costs of the delay but has offered few public details.

The official cost of putting on the Tokyo Olympics was $12.6 billion (NZD$17.9 billion), however, a government audit last year said it was probably twice that much. All but US$5.69 billion (NZD$8 billion) is public money.

Tokyo said the games would cost US$7.3 billion (NZD$10.4 billion) when it won the bid in 2013.

The USD$2 billion only adds to the total. A University of Oxford study published early this year — calculated before the postponement — said Tokyo was the most expensive Summer Olympics on record and the meter is still running.

The IOC and organisers have been campaigning over the last several months to convince sponsors and a sceptical Japanese public that the Olympics can be held safely in the middle of a pandemic.

The Olympics are to open on July 23, 2021, followed by the Paralympics on Aug. 24. They involve 15,400 athletes and ten of thousands of officials, judges, staff, VIPs, sponsors as well as media and broadcasters.

IOC President Thomas Bach, who was in Tokyo earlier this month, has said a vaccine and improved rapid testing would help pull off the Olympics. But he cautioned they are not "silver bullets."

Athletes are expected to be closely monitored, held in quarantine-like conditions, discouraged from sightseeing and encouraged to leave as soon as they finish competing.

Some fans are expected at the events, but it is unclear if many fans from abroad will be allowed to attend.

Japan has controlled COVID-19 better than most countries, but has seen a spike over the last several weeks in Tokyo and elsewhere. Tokyo set a one-day record for new infections on Friday with 570. About 2,000 deaths in Japan have been attributed to COVID-19.