Tokyo Confirms Bid For 2020 Olympics

Japan hopes to show the world that it can recover from the tragic tsunami earlier this year.

In a move to bolster the morale of its citizens in the wake of the devastating tsunami in March, the Japanese Olympic Committee formally entered Tokyo in the race to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to officially announce that we will bid to host the 2020 Olympics,” declared Tsunekazu Takeda who is the committee president. He made the speech at a symposium to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Japanese Olympic Committee.

Japan hasn’t hosted a Summer Olympic games since 1964–Asia’s first Olympics. It had expressed an interest to host the 2016 games, but lost out to Rio de Janeiro.

Referring to World War 2, Takeda had this to say about the recent announcement: “The last time we hosted the Olympics, we were able to show the world how much we had recovered from disaster. We want to make this event a similar symbol of recovery from the major disasters we have suffered. We will devote ourselves to the cause of bringing the Olympics back to Tokyo.”

For More: Ottawa Citizen