The article examines the public economics of mega-events in the Japanese host cities of Tokyo (2020 summer Olympics), Osaka (Expo 2025), and Sapporo (2030 winter Olympics). The hosting of a mega-event requires multi-billions of publicly funded expenditures in permanent and temporary infrastructure, urban regeneration/gentrification, cultural events and amenities, tourism campaigns, and deployment of additional security measures, among others. However, matters relating to the comprehensive protection of taxpayers in Japanese host cities have remained understudied in the specialized literature of mega-events. The article argues that local taxpayers not only have a claim to the financial/economic and environmental sustainability of these mega-events but they are, in fact, their largest stakeholder(s). This aspect is ever more pressing as the hosting of both the 2020 Olympics and the Expo 2025 is directly and/or immediately impacted by the (long-term) socio-economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. In order to secure the long-term fiscal sustainability of host cities/nations, higher and clearer levels of accountability and transparency towards local taxpayers (and the general public, at large) are required.
Grace Gonzalez Basurto (Wed,) studied this question.