Tokyo Gov. Ishihara `bitterly disappointed` with Olympic bid failure

COPENHAGEN, Oct. 3 Kyodo -
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Friday he is ''bitterly disappointed'' with
the failure of Tokyo's Olympic bid but ruled out the possibility that he will
step down to take responsibility for the result.
''I think we battled it out with a very good bidding team and we did a good job
and played a good game,'' Ishihara told reporters in Copenhagen after the
International Olympic Committee chose Rio de Janeiro as host of the 2016 Summer
Games over Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago.
''It was also a good experience in my life and it's something I think I should
pass on to the Japanese people,'' he said. ''But I definitely won't quit as
governor because I have many other things to do in my job.''
Ishihara did not make clear whether Tokyo will bid for the 2020 Games.
''We have to swallow this disappointment and think about what to do in the
years ahead,'' said the 77-year-old Ishihara, who is also an award-winning
author. But he reiterated his intention not to run for re-election when his
current third-term as governor expires in 2011.
Ishihara has been an enthusiastic supporter of bringing the Olympics back to
the Japanese capital ever since he launched Tokyo's bid four years ago. In a
two-minute speech in English as part of the city's presentation prior to the
vote, he said he was inspired by how a sporting event had changed Japanese
society when Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympic Games.
The only Summer Olympics staged in Japan so far took place during an era of
high economic growth and helped to improve the nation's infrastructure,
symbolized by the construction of a shinkansen bullet train line and expressway
networks ahead of the start of the Games.
Tokyo's latest bid raised hopes in business circles that, if successful, it
would help reinvigorate the slumping Japanese economy.
''Business circles have been seeking to take all necessary political measures
to help lift our economy and we also had hoped that public works and
consumption would benefit from a successful Olympic bid,'' an official of the
Japan Business Federation, also known as Nippon Keidanren, said in Tokyo on
Saturday.
Neither Nippon Keidanren nor any of the other major Japanese business lobbies
issued an official statement on the results of the IOC voting in Copenhagen,
where Japan was eliminated in the second round of balloting after Chicago was
ousted in the first round.
In the Danish capital, Japanese Olympic medalists past and present who were on
the Tokyo bid team did not hide their disappointments after Tokyo's elimination
was read out.
''We united to do everything we could, but I'm very sad right now,'' said Naoko
Takahashi, the women's marathon gold medal winner at the 2000 Sydney Games.
Former synchronized swimmer Mikako Kotani and hammer thrower Koji Murofushi,
who was a gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Games, appeared similarly dejected
at the media center in Copenhagen.
In the presentation, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama delivered a speech
emphasizing an eco-friendly bid plan after U.S. President Barack Obama sought
backing for Chicago's bid only to see those hopes go down the drain with the
city's swift elimination.
Hatoyama, who returned to Japan on Saturday, released a statement
congratulating the Brazilian people on the victory by Rio de Janeiro, which
will become the first South American city to host the Olympics.
==Kyodo