Tokyo bid suffers in IOC support poll of residents

An International Olympic Committee (IOC) poll of Tokyo residents revealed only 56 per cent of them supported the Japan capital's bid to host the 2016 Summer Games.

The IOC's evaluation committee carried out surveys simultaneously in Tokyo and rival bid cities Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro in February and will submit the results in their final report.

The 56 per cent figure for Tokyo was dramatically at odds with the bid committee's own findings and those of Japan's mass circulation Yomiuri newspaper.

A senior Tokyo official confirmed the IOC figure to Reuters yesterday, while pointing to results of the bid committee's own survey carried out in January.

Tokyo bid leaders said 70 per cent of those interviewed nationwide supported the plan to stage the Games, two per cent more than the backing of the city's residents.

A recent Yomiuri poll put support from Tokyoites at 76 per cent.

The IOC will announce the 2016 Olympic host city in Copenhagen on October 2.

IOC bid inspectors announced the results of its poll to Japanese officials and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara during an evaluation visit last month.

Tokyo, the first Asian city to host the Olympics in 1964, topped the IOC's overall technical evaluation last June ahead of Madrid.

The city's bid leaders insist Tokyo is best-placed to survive the global credit crunch and stage a debt-free Olympics, having already secured a contingency fund of over $4 billion.

However, Barack Obama's landslide victory in the United States presidential election last November was seen to give his home city of Chicago a major boost.