The new schedule of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which were postponed until the summer of 2021, was "decided so it would align with political schedules," Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo organizing committee, said Thursday.
He said the committee took into consideration election schedules of House of Representatives and Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members whose terms are to expire next year.
His remark was made at a meeting of the Diet Members' League for the Promotion of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in the Diet.
"I thought it would be better to wait another year, but Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe decided [to postpone the Games] for one year," the former prime minister said.
At the meeting, Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee Acting President Toshiaki Endo, who is a former minister for the Tokyo Games, said that the committee aims to submit a bill to revise the Law on Special Measures for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, which moved the dates for three national holidays this year, including Marine Day, to coincide with the now postponed Tokyo Games.
Endo's proposed new national holiday schedule, based around the Tokyo Games next year, is as follows: Marine Day (normally falls on the third Monday of July) would be scheduled for July 22, which is the day before the opening ceremony; Sports Day (usually the second Monday of October) would be scheduled for July 23, which is the day of the opening ceremony; and Mountain Day (ordinarily on Aug. 11) would be scheduled for Aug. 9, which is the day after the closing ceremony.
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