Quake damage assessment of Tokyo 2020 venues

Article posted by Coliseum, February 17^th, 2021

Image: paralympic.org

Tokyo 2020 Olympic venues are to be assessed for damage following an earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan.

A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on the night of February 13^th. More than 120 people have been reported injured. Japan’s Meteorological Agency believes this was an aftershock from the massive earthquake that hit the region in 2011.

The quake tremors shook buildings and led to nearly one million homes losing power. Capital City Tokyo was among the areas to be impacted.

Japanese news agency Kyodo News said the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has reported that three venues North and East of the capital City have already been assessed and found to be undamaged. The Azuma Baseball Stadium in the City of Fukushima, which is scheduled to hold baseball and softball, and the Miyagi Stadium and Kashima Stadium football arenas were each cleared.

Kyodo News reports that Tokyo 2020 officials are set to complete thorough surveys of Games sites to more closely examine whether any damage has been caused.

The quake on February 13^th hit at 23:08 local time (14:08 GMT) at a depth of 60 km in the Pacific, off Japan’s Eastern coast, Japan’s meteorological agency (JMA) said. Aftershocks have continued to hit the region since.

The JMA said the earthquake was likely an aftershock of the massive 2011 quake and tsunami which left behind a trail of destruction and killed over 18,000 people.

The earthquake came just days after Tokyo 2020 Chief Executive Yoshiro Mori resigned over comments deemed “inappropriate” about women in business.

In December 2020, organizers revealed that the total cost of the Games now stands at $15.4bn; including the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOG) budget of $6.7bn. The cost comprises the $12.6bn forecasted in the version four budgets, plus the OCOG’s contingency fund of $300m and the additional costs due to COVID-19 of $2.5bn, including $600m of additional Paralympic Games costs.

The pandemic-delayed Olympics Games are due to take place from July 23^rd to August 8^th, 2021 followed by the Paralympic Games from August 24^th to September 5^th, 2021.

The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, and also known as Tokyo 2020, is an upcoming international multisport event scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan.

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