Tokyo 2020 Still Faces Major Hurdle

Officials were taken aback by an IOC survey that showed public support was far below Japan's own figures.

Japanese Olympic Committee Vice President Tomiaki Fukuda told a press conference Thursday, "support is not so favourable. The sports world must unite and lead the way to raise awareness".

Tokyo included a survey in its application to the IOC showing that 65 per cent of respondents living in the city supported the bid, but a poll by the IOC found only 47 per cent supported it, 30 per cent had "no opinion", and 23 per cent were opposed.

The other two Candidate cities, Madrid and Istanbul, had approval ratings of 78 and 73 per cent.

Ryuta Matsunaga, director of the 2020 bid promotion section said, "we don't know how the IOC survey was carried out, so I can't really comment about the difference (between the survey). What stands out are the 30 per cent with 'no opinion'. We will focus our efforts on turning them into supporters".

Meanwhile IOC President Jacques Rogge said Thursday that Japan's wavering power supply is a concern for hosting the 2020 Games.

He said, "we know that the disaster of Fukushima has had an effect on the power supply, because nuclear power has been shut down and so in times of peak consumption there might be a shortage of power. The IOC will follow the evolution and we trust the Japanese will find a solution for that. They're one of the most important economies of the world, so we believe they can handle that".