TURMOIL

Japan’s Olympic Committee Chief Indicted Over Corruption Allegations

The Games are due to take place in Tokyo next year.

The president of Japan’s Olympic Committee has been indicted on corruption allegations, according to reports, throwing preparations for next year’s Games in Tokyo into turmoil. Tsunekazu Takeda, a retired sportsman who is helping to organize Tokyo 2020, was indicted last month by the national financial prosecutor’s office in Paris. In 2016, French prosecutors opened an investigation into more than $2 million of payments made by Japan’s bidding committee to a Singaporean consultancy firm. Takeda was questioned in 2017 by Japanese prosecutors in relation to those payments, but a panel commissioned by the Japanese Olympic Committee found the payments to have been legitimate. It’s the latest in a string of problems for Tokyo 2020—a stadium plan had to be abandoned after a public anger over soaring costs, and its original logo was said to be plagiarized. Takeda hasn’t yet been reached for comment.