Tokyo governor drops bid hint

Tokyo’s governor has sent a letter of greetings to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – a hint the city could bid for the 2020 Games as a catalyst to boost disaster-hit Japan.

Shintaro Ishihara sent the “ceremonial greeting card” to all IOC members, as well as other officials including ambassadors, following his re-election in April, a city government official said.

Tokyo has not formally announced a bid, but after re-election Ishihara said working to win the Olympics would be a “big catalyst for our country’s reconstruction and revival”.

Japan is rebuilding after a huge earthquake and tsunami devastated vast swathes of the northeast coast in March and sparked the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Ishihara reiterated his Olympic idea on Friday, telling a regular news conference about a possible 2020 bid: “I still think we’d better not extinguish the flame of the torch.”

The Japanese capital hosted the Games in 1964 and an unnamed IOC member, quoted by Japan’s Kyodo news agency, said the letter showed the governor’s strong enthusiasm about Tokyo’s fresh Olympic bid.

Candidates for 2020 must submit their bids to the IOC by September 1 and the host city will be chosen in Buenos Aires in September 2013.