January 15 - Nagasaki will not proceed with a plan to make a joint bid with Hiroshima for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Mayor Tomihisa Taue (pictured) announced today.



Taue made the announcement at a morning meeting of representatives from the parties in the City Assembly.

As long as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter - which states that only one city from each country may bid on the Games - remains unchanged, Taue claimed it would be impossible for them to host the event.

He said: "While the Olympic Charter continues to state one city per [bid] country, the options for an atom-bombed city to stage the Games are obviously limited."

The Nagasaki Mayor said that further action on an Olympic bid would be up to the bid committee, chaired by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, but that Nagasaki would do everything in its power to support a bid by Hiroshima.

Furthermore, should Hiroshima bid on its own Taue is considering participating in peace events organised by the city, he said.

He said: "If Hiroshima officially decides to bid [on the Games], then we will do everything we can in support."

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara offered an olive branch to Nagasaki by suggesting some Olympic events be held in city on the southern island of Kyushu if the capital decided to successfully bid again to take the Summer Games back to Japan for the first time since 1964.

He said: "The idea of an 'Olympics for peace' is persuasive.

"We will seek cooperation from Nagasaki City."

Nagasaki first announced it was considering a joint bid for the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in October last year after Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Olympics lost out to Rio de Janeiro.

However, Japanese Olympic Committee chairman Tsunekazu Takeda informed the Mayors of both cities in December that a joint bid was impossible.


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