Seiko Hashimoto: Sapporo’s bid for Games facing difficulty

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:47 JST, December 2, 2022

The Sapporo bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics has been made very difficult by corruption and bid-rigging scandals involving the 2020 Tokyo Games, said House of Councillors lawmaker Seiko Hashimoto, who served as president of the Tokyo Games organizing committee.

After meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday, Hashimoto told reporters, “Unless it becomes clear that the 2030 Games are completely different from the 2020 Games, it’ll be difficult to increase support” among the residents of Sapporo and Hokkaido.

“We need to find out [the truth of the incidents] as soon as possible so that we can start a new bidding process,” she added.