The Tokyo metropolitan government and the organizing committee for the 2020 Games were scrambling to adjust on Wednesday, a day after it was decided to postpone the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games by about a year.
The major policy change sent shock waves through venues and the tourism industry, which had been preparing for the Games to be held this summer.
A countdown board showing the number of days left until the Games was hastily removed early Wednesday from the foyer of the first building of the Tokyo metropolitan government complex in Shinjuku Ward, and officials in Tokyo's Olympic and Paralympic Games preparation bureau were busily contacting many municipal authorities in the capital.
"The new coronavirus measures have already put us in a bind, and now we have to carry an even greater burden," said a frowning senior official of the metropolitan government.
A senior member of the organizing committee said: "The tournament has been postponed, but we have no time to lose. First of all, we have to explain it to the venues and get their understanding."
Twenty-five of the 43 venues to be used during the Tokyo Games are pre-existing facilities. Now that the Games have been postponed, there will have to be negotiations to use those facilities for the delayed events, as popular venues have already been booked for other purposes in 2021.
Tokyo International Forum in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, hosts about 800 events a year. It suspended the lending out of its halls to the public from July to September this year because they were to serve as venues for weightlifting and other events during the Games. What will happen with those halls during that period is now up in the air.
Tokyo International Forum houses multiple halls and already started accepting reservations for next year's events.
"We don't know what to do now because we've received no specific information. We need to check with the metropolitan government and the organizing committee immediately." an official of the complex said.
Hotels and travel agencies, which had been expecting special demand from the Olympics and Paralympics, must also deal with the situation.
JTB Corp., KNT-CT Holdings Co. and Tobu Top Tours Co., which sell tours with tickets to the Games, started receiving many inquiries from customers immediately after their outlets opened on Wednesday.
If the tours are canceled, the customers are expected to be refunded. However, one travel agency official said: "We don't know whether we can give priority to customers who applied for our Olympic and Paralympic tours when we distribute the same tours next year. We can't make any moves until the new dates and the ticketing policy are decided."
Games officials reserved all 220 rooms at the Nippon Seinenkan Hotel in Shinjuku Ward from mid-July to September. The hotel overlooks the National Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremony are to be held.
The hotel may lose about 200 million yen if the reservations are canceled.
"We have to hurry to get new reservations because there is a high possibility of a gap in the reservations due to the postponement," said Shigeyuki Mitamura, the general manager of the hotel.
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