Photo/Illutration Members of the Italian delegation for the Tokyo Paralympics pose for a photo at Haneda Airport in Tokyo before departure on Sept. 6. (Tatsuo Kanai)

As the chief of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games bid farewell to the mega sporting extravaganza, she seemed to welcome Japan's next chance to host with the same breath.

And she offered to lead the effort.

The morning after the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Paralympics, Seiko Hashimoto expressed her eagerness to head the 2030 Winter Olympics--that is, if Sapporo wins its bid to host the Games.

“I would love to accept it, if (people) ask me to assume the chair of the organizing committee of (the Sapporo Games),” Hashimoto said at a news conference on Sept. 6.

If that happens, the Sapporo Olympics “will be a more complete and total event, where you see stadiums filled and people’s smiling faces everywhere,” she said.

The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were held under unprecedented conditions and mostly without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Tokyo being under a state of emergency. 

“I cannot say that the Games were 100 percent successful because we could not carry them out in a complete fashion,” Hashimoto said. “But the efforts we made toward a successful hosting of the Games were amazing and mean more than a success.”

She suggested that dealing with all the curve balls thrown at the 2020 Games may have prepared them to really hit it out of the park the next time.

“History will prove if the (Tokyo Olympics) were a success or not. I think the next challenge for us is to take the Games’ legacy to another level, where people would look back and say that it was good to host the Tokyo Olympics back then.”

Hashimoto said she is willing to use her experience from hosting the Summer Games to improve it the next time Japan plays host. 

But the next challenge that Hashimoto and her fellow organizers face is deciding how to cover the massive tab the Games racked up. Costs ballooned from the one-year postponement and the implementation of COVID-19 measures.

The decision to ban fans at venues ensured a large drop in revenue from ticket sales alone.

And the discussion over who will shoulder what cost will soon move to the fore.

Toshiro Muto, CEO of the organizing committee, said if the organizer does not generate enough sales to break even, it will find a way to do so through “exchanging opinions with the central and metropolitan governments.”

Workers have meanwhile begun cleaning up now that the party is over.

The massive Paralympic symbol, called the “Three Agitos,” which was set up at Odaiba Seaside Park in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, was hauled away on the morning of Sept. 6.

Pedestrians took pictures of its removal from a nearby commercial facility.

A 35-year-old taxi driver who lives in Adachi Ward hoped the object would remain installed at sea, floating there as a “memorial” of the Tokyo Games.

“I feel sad to see it’s gone,” he said.

The massive steel object, which measures 17.5 meters in length, 23.4 meters in width and 2 meters thick, will be dismantled and recycled.

(This article was written by Hiroshi Nakano and Yusuke Saito.)

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