Japanese sports minister to return half of his pay for 6 months after resignation
The construction plan was scrapped in July by Abe amid a public outcry over its ballooning costs and the issue has "caused concern and trouble to many people," the education, culture, sports, science and technology minister told a press conference. Measures taken to prevent a recurrence of such problems will include boosting outside experts at the Japan Sports Council, a state-run body overseeing the stadium's construction, and setting up a council to reinforce communication between the ministry and the JSC, he said. Shimomura said he will return half of his pay as minister for the six months through September as part of the remedial measures. He also requested JSC President Ichiro Kono and Shinichi Yamanaka, the former top bureaucrat at the ministry who left office on Aug. 4, to return a one-tenth of their salaries for two months. On Thursday, a third-party panel, set up by the ministry to examine how the cost of the new National Stadium spiraled, blamed in a report both the ministry and the JSC for failing to organize proper management systems for the construction plan. Shimomura said Thursday that the report "didn't mention about whether (officials involved) should resign or not." "I would like to announce what kind of responsibility I, the vice minister and the JSC president will take on Friday," he said, referring to Kono and Yamanaka. Shimomura, a House of Representatives member elected from a constituency in Tokyo, has been known for his close ties with Abe because of their similar views on wartime history. Abe decided to scrap the stadium plan design by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid and start from scratch in July in the wake of a public outcry over the expanding construction costs, which nearly doubled to 265.1 billion yen ($2.2 billion) from the initially projected 130 billion yen. The government decided on Aug. 28 to set a 155 billion yen cap on the cost, and the JSC on Sept.1 invited submissions for a new plan for design and construction of the stadium with selection scheduled for late December. Source: Kyodo
