The official survey, conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, was carried out online and by telephone on 7-9 January, and results were compiled from answers received by some 4,000 respondents from across Japan.

Even though the bid to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games is still at an early stage, 65.7 percent of respondents expressed their positive support for the Games.

“These results indicate that some 80 million people across the whole of Japan are behind our bid,” Tokyo 2020 President and Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda said. “This is wonderful news for Tokyo 2020, and will serve as a further motivation for us to bring the Games to Tokyo.”

“Our bid for the 2020 Games has only been underway for a few short months, and we have not yet made public the details of our plans. Despite this, however, we have still managed to garner a 65.7% support rate for the bid,” Takeda added.

“Since Tokyo 2020 was established in September last year, the national government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, both Houses of the Japanese Diet, and the political, business and sporting communities have declared their full support for our efforts. And now this extremely encouraging news regarding domestic support rates has been the icing on the cake.”

“We are currently finalising the details of our Applicant File, which must be submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by 15 February We will, of course, include the recent domestic support rate figures in the file, and I am sure that this will send a clear message to the IOC that the whole of Japan is united in its efforts to ensure that Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Games is successful.

We plan to publicly release the details of our bid once our file has been submitted to the IOC, and I am certain that this will lead to a further rise in the domestic support rate.” Takeda also noted.

Official site: www.tokyo2020.jp