TOKYO (AP) — The head of the Japanese Olympic Committee says Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has agreed to be a top adviser to a panel supporting Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
JOC President Tsunekazu Takeda said Thursday that Noda was asked to assume the post and for the government to give its full support to the bid.
Noda accepted the request and was quoted by Takeda as saying, “Let us do our best to make this bid a success,” Kyodo new agency reported.
Tokyo, which campaigned for the 2016 Olympics but lost out to Rio de Janeiro, is up against Doha, Qatar; Istanbul, Turkey; Madrid; and Rome. The IOC will select the host city in September 2013.
