Using a "safe pair of hands" as a bid theme, and telling the International Olympics Committee that the Olympics would be in safe hands, Tokyo has won the bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics on Saturday, September 7.
They brought up their $4.5 million reserve fund that is already in place to cover the costs of Olympic contingencies, and polls showing travelers' confidence in Tokyo as the safest city in the world.
It will be Japan's fourth time to host the Olympic games, more so than any other country in the world with the exception of the United States which has hosted eight, and France with five.
Joining Tokyo with the bid are Madrid and Istanbul, with Madrid becoming eliminated in the first round of voting; a secret ballot which ends when one city has achieved the majority. Tokyo then won over Istanbul, with the polls ending at 60-36 after the second round of voting.
Doubts surrounding Madrid's battered economy and instability in the Middle East are the factors that have probably taken the biggest blow to Madrid and Istanbul's chances at hosting the prestigious games, with IOC member Prince Albert of Monaco saying that the "safe" bet had come most into play during the vote.
Tokya had only to deal with one significant current issue, which Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attacked head-on: the radioactive waters at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which is 150 miles from Tokyo. Abe confidently guaranteed that there would be no present or future health-related problems , making references to Fukushima in his prepared statements, and boldly answering IOC's further questioning regarding the matter, saying that the situation is under control, and that it will never do any damage to Tokyo.
With its struggling economy and lingering aftereffects of the deadly 2011 tsunami and earthquake that caused the devastation and leak of the Fukushima reactor, Tokyo packed a whopper in its presentation, emphasizing that hosting the games would give their youth a chance at believing in the future again. But what possibly moved the IOC was Paralympian Mami Sato's speech about her experiences. Sato, whose hometown was hit by the 2011 tsunami said, in halting English that she had been saved by sports and saying how children were greatly brightened when International and Japanese athletes visited the ravaged areas. Her speech was the strongest in the entire Japanese presentation, giving it the passion and conviction that ensured Japan's victory.
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