Photo/Illutration A monument of the Beijing Olympics in Beijing on Feb. 1 (Takuya Isayama)

The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) is having difficulty finding sponsors after significantly hiking its rates, but it is not expected to suffer a financial hit from commercial partnerships drying up.

Currently, the organization is seeking companies that are willing to sign a three-year sponsorship deal starting in 2022.

As of Jan. 31, the organization said five companies have signed on, including Airweave Inc., Ajinomoto Co. and Mitsui Fudosan Co.

When the committee sought sponsorships on its own from 2013 to 2016, 22 companies had signed on by January 2013.

But this time, it is requiring companies to pay more than 2 billion yen ($17.5 million) in total over three years to become a “gold partner,” the highest level of sponsorship.

The price per year has jumped about fivefold from the previous time.

“Companies’ reactions have been pretty harsh,” a JOC representative said.

The price was set before the COVID-19 pandemic started.

It was based on an estimate that the 2020 Tokyo Games would bring about success and that the popularity of sports would grow in Japan.

A senior JOC official said a person related to Dentsu Group Inc. told them, “Companies were sick and tired of the Tokyo Olympics and have increasingly gotten away from sports. It is a cumbersome task to find sponsors.”

The hefty price tag is not the only issue at play.

Since 2015, the JOC had signed sponsorship deals with companies in a joint effort with the organizing committee of the Tokyo Olympics.

But the organizing committee was tarnished by a spate of scandals, most notably the misogynistic remarks made by Yoshiro Mori, its former chairman.

Furthermore, most Olympic events were held without spectators because of the pandemic.

According to a survey conducted by the JOC last year, the recognizability of Japan’s Olympic delegation dropped to 55.5 percent in September, which was after the Olympics, from June 2021, when it was 57.3 percent.

A company that served as a gold partner at the Tokyo Games and past Olympics is expected to decline signing a partnership this time around.

“Questions about the cost-benefit performance of the Tokyo Olympic were raised within the company,” a company representative said. “The pandemic has yet to be contained, and this time, politically charged issues surround the (Beijing Games). So, we decided we could not be a partner.”

A representative of another company that was a gold partner of the Tokyo Olympics said the human rights issues surrounding the Chinese government is a major concern.

“The Beijing Olympics has generated a political conflict. It has become an extremely sensitive and severe problem for a company operating globally.”

Dentsu has taken on the task of finding JOC sponsors.

Even if that search ends with a whimper, the JOC is guaranteed to receive a certain amount of money from Dentsu because it signed a minimum guarantee.

The amount guaranteed is about 13.5 billion yen over three years starting in 2022, and about 15 billion yen for the four-year period starting from 2025.

So, even with the difficulty in finding willing sponsors, the JOC will not face a serious financial battering in the near future.

But sponsors also serve as partners that promote the Olympic movement alongside the JOC.

“There is no point in just getting money,” a JOC representative said. “The (movement) will not gain steam unless sponsors air commercials and hold joint events.”

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