Second Japanese bid announced for 2016 Summer Olympics
TOKYO/PARIS (AFP) – The western Japanese city of Fukuoka yesterday announced a plan to bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics in competition with Tokyo. The city, some 900 kilometers west of the capital, submitted the necessary documents to the Japanese Olympic Committee, officials said. «It’s time to consider [the value of] local cities against the metropolis,» Fukuoka prefectural governor Wataru Aso said. Tokyo, which hosted Japan’s first Games in 1964, has already unveiled its candidacy for the 2016 Games. Japan, which is emerging from a decade-long economic slump, was the first nation to formally inform the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last month of its candidacy for the 2016 Games, which won’t be decided until mid-2009. Although Japan has hosted two Winter Games in Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998), it lost its Summer Games bids twice to emerging Asian neighbors – Seoul and Beijing. The Japanese Olympic Committee will choose the sole Japanese candidate city on August 30 after receiving bid plans by June 30. In Paris, French President Jacques Chirac vowed yesterday that at all the sporting infrastructure projects planned ahead of Paris’ failed bid to host the 2012 Olympics will be completed.
