Nagano investigation panel named
Posted: Thursday January 28, 1999 11:47 AM
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- The Japanese Olympic Committee has named seven of
its executives to a task force to investigate Nagano's successful
bid for the 1998 Winter Games, JOC officials announced Thursday.
JOC Secretary General Yushiro Yagi will head the new body, which
also includes administration and coordination committee head
Muneyoshi Ueda and finance commission chief Kenichi Chizuka, the
JOC said in a statement.
The committee has not yet decided when the first meeting of the
task force would be.
The JOC decided on Monday to launch a review of Nagano's
successful bid in response to a decision by the International
Olympic Committee to broaden its probe into Salt Lake City's bid to
other Olympic host cities.
In recent weeks, Nagano officials have disclosed how some IOC
officials were wooed during the city's bid, including
all-expenses-paid trips to Kyoto, a tourist spot 250 kilometers
(150 miles) from Nagano.
Some IOC officials were also entertained by geisha, and IOC
President Juan Antonio Samaranch received an expensive painting and
Japanese sword.
JOC executive board member Chiharu Igaya has defended the lavish
entertainment as "normal."
On Monday, Nagano Mayor Tasuku Tsukada, one of the top officials
of the bidding committee, acknowledged "excesses" in his city's
bid. Nagano bid officials have said they wined and dined the 62
visiting IOC officials, spending about 2 million yen (US$18,000)
on each IOC official, including air fare.
The fact that Nagano's bidding expense records are missing could
complicate the investigation. A bid official said recently that he
had the books burned in 1992.
Meanwhile, a group of Nagano residents filed a civil lawsuit
Tuesday demanding that the state and city of Nagano, as well as two
other Nagano towns that were the sites for the 1998 Games, return
some 831 million yen (US$7 million) in taxpayer money that
allegedly went into the bid for the games.
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