Expert panel: Tokyo Olympics costs could top $30 billion

TOKYO (AP) — The price tag of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could exceed 3 trillion yen ($30 billion) unless drastic cost-cutting measures are taken and several key venues are relocated, an expert panel warned Thursday in the latest blow to Japanese organizers.

"[...] anyone who hears these numbers is alarmed," panel leader Shinichi Ueyama said.

The Olympic investigation team was launched by newly elected Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike after she raised concerns about growing cost estimates and the potential burden on the city and its taxpayers.

Preparations for Japan's first Summer Olympics since Tokyo hosted the 1964 Games have been plagued by a series of scandals and problems, including the new national stadium's high cost and design, and allegations of bribery in the bidding process.

Ueyama, a Keio University public policy professor, criticized Tokyo's Olympic organizers as irresponsible, comparing them to "a company without a president and a chief financial officer."

The current plan hopes to turn the venue, a former site of a garbage plant, into a "mecca" for the sport and attract 40,000 visitors, but the panel said that is overly optimistic in a country with only several hundred athletes in rowing and canoeing.