October 4 - A new office to coordinate policies among Ministries and agencies who are expected to be involved in preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics is to be set-up by the Japanese Government under Hakubun Shimomura, it was announced today.
The decision, a month after the Japanese capital was awarded the Games for the first time since 1964, was revealed by the Government's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga.
"We created the office to bring efforts by various agencies together to make the Olympics a success," said Suga.
The appointment of Himomura, 59, is no surprise as he had been serving as the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology since last December and had been an important member of the Tokyo 2020 in the closing stages of the campaign.
Himomura joined Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a special ceremony to mark the opening of the office, where officials from the Ministries of Education and Health will coordinate security arrangements and prepare facilities for the Olympics and Paralympics.
Takeo Hirata, a special adviser to the Cabinet, will head the office set up within the Cabinet Secretariat.
Hirata, 53, is a former general secretary and currently is the honorary vice president of the Japan Football Association.
He was closely involved in Japan's successful bid to host the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which they co-hosted with South Korea.
Hirata is also a professor at the Graduate School of Sports Sciences at Waseda University, an auditor of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations, chairperson of the Japan Society of Sports Industry and a member of the Board of the Tokyo Marathon Foundation.
Hirata, who also previously had a spell in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, had worked personally for Abe in the last month of Tokyo's successful campaign, advising him.