Olympics: Parliamentary group set up to promote Tokyo's Olympic bid+

TOKYO, Dec. 19 Kyodo -
A parliamentary group promoting Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games was
established with a ceremony Friday.
The cross-party group, headed by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, will call
for a Diet resolution backing Tokyo's bid as financial guarantees and support
in other areas by governments have become a key factor in the success of recent
Olympic bids.
Tokyo bidders want a promise of government support as soon as possible because
of the need to submit detailed bid plans to the International Olympic Committee
by the Feb. 12 deadline.
''We want to put the subject of government guarantees in writing in the best
possible way in documents (to be sent to the IOC),'' Japanese Olympic Committee
President Tsunekazu Takeda said. ''Olympics and politics are two different
things but it's important to obtain cooperation from the government for a peace
movement in sports.''
Tokyo has cleared the first hurdle of the IOC's screening process in the
selection of candidates to host the 2016 Summer Games and advanced to the final
stage of voting scheduled for Oct. 2 next year in Copenhagen, along with
Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.
Tokyo staged the only Summer Games held in Japan in 1964. Japanese cities
Sapporo and Nagano hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972 and 1998, respectively.
==Kyodo
2008-12-19 23:56:48