Society

Construction of Olympic stadium completed

Nov 20 (NHK) - All construction works for the main stadium of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games have finished.

Officials from the Japan Sport Council on Tuesday briefed the media about the progress of the new National Stadium in Tokyo.

They said the construction of all of the stadium's facilities, such as the field, spectators' seats, and pedestrian decks around the stadium, are now finished. The council will check the facilities, and the stadium will be ready on November 30.

They said construction costs totaled 152.9 billion yen, or about 1.4 billion dollars. This was higher than expected due to changes in prices and labor costs, but lower than the government-set ceiling of 155 billion yen.

As for the use of the stadium after the 2020 Games, the council was scheduled to come up with a plan by the middle of this year to hand over the stadium's operation to the private sector. But it now aims to draw up the plan after the Tokyo Games.

It says detailed designs of the stadium should not be given to private businesses before the Olympics for security reasons.

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