"Osaka Needs No Olympics" citizens' union
OSAKA, JAPAN

Aug 22, 2000
His Excellency
Senior Juan Antonio Samaranch
President
International Olympic Committee

Dear Mr. President

We are writing a letter to you again.
We are a civil group that is opposing to Osaka City's bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Now we are surprised to read the booklet "OSAKA 2008 APPLICANT CITY" that was issued by Osaka City. We can point out a lot of problems or lies in this booklet. We wish you would recognize dishonesty of Osaka City and reject the City's bid in this stage, if possible in this August.

1 Motivation
Osaka City didn't discuss its motivation to announce the bid for the Olympics at first. The first "Motivation Comittee" in 1999 was obviously too late.
They are merely reviving the huge development around Osaka bay-area. What they say in the said booklet has some contradictions, which tell us that Osaka City is not actually willing to invite the Olympics 2008.

2 Concept
They say ".....islands are filled under strict environmental control.......". But these islands are already polluted by serious amount of dioxins and PCB. All they did was to cancel the place of the main stadium. And they haven't decided the new place. (This is the reason why they didn't insert the map of Mai-shima)
They hadn't noticed this pollution until the department of environment reported these facts. Can they call themselves real "recycling conscious communities"?

4 Government support
The balance sheet of Osaka City's budget is one of the worst in any Japanese cities. Their debt by past March would be over 5 trillion-yen, and the Japanese government's budget is also getting worse and worse. We believe that some financial supports will be cut down.

6 Public Opinion
Even in the questionnaire led by Osaka City,"what kind of volunteer activities do you like to do?", people in Osaka prefered the other activities to the counterpart of the Osaka Olympics.
They also reported opposing group's opinions in the said booklet, but they ignored our civil group and haven't had a public hearing on our group. Our opinion is different from the Japanese Communist Party.
They also reported that Mayor Isomura re-elected last year. But it is amazing that 30% of the people obviously expressed their objection by the votes on new and unknown candidate.
They insist "A million of signatures had been collected for the Osaka Olympics",
But they were collected by city officials and business communities for the bid. They were collected mainly in the firms concerned with the Olympics, not on the street.

8 Planned general infrastructure
The planned subway won't be able to be completed until 2008.

10 Date of the Olympics Game
This period might be ideal for Japanese spectators, but it will be 35 degree Celsius and humidity will be over 70%. If I were athlete, I wouldn't select Osaka.

15 Environment
As for the "Environment Guideline for Olympics Games", Osaka City made a draft and collected public opinions at first. But they ignored our opinions. Our opinions were that they should investigate soil pollution more and they should avoid the polluted place for studiums.
As for the "Environment Plan for Olympics Games" ,this stage hasn't been completed, though it was scheduled to be completed by the past april.


They were proud of their design and maintenance of this island, but Japanese newspapers reported the fact that their efforts aren't enough to maintain the environment. One of the examples was that Drainage from the polluted area wasn't processed for more than a year and it was illegal.


Yume-shima is where expected to be built Athletes Village. This area was filled with sand and mud from the bottom of the sea, which was polluted with dioxins or PCB. But they haven't done enough investigations.


In their plan, the regatta would be held in Daido-gawa. It would include "Iba-Naiko",the important part of Lake Biwa. This delicate swamp is contributing to the purification of water. The impacts of Regatta Course would be serious for environment there. We will enclose photographs of swamp.

17 Transport
The detail of the subway plan was revealed nowaday. we read it, and found several defects on it.
The subway line would not be able to transport passengers as much as Osaka City estimates,because the platform of the station would be too nallow and the station would have quite long way to transfer.

As for the subway constraction, environmental assessments haven't finished yet. Therefor the Ministry of Transport hasn't permitted to this construction of subway yet.

We filed a suit in a court to stop the subway plan. We are insisting that:
(1) Expected passengers and income are too little in proportion of management cost in the long span.
(2) Looking from the taxpayer's view, Osaka City would construct a subway line and lent it without taking any consideration.
(3) Mai-shima and Yume-shima are filled with polluted soil. Therefor subway would release the poisons into environment.
(4) The subway line won't be completed by the summer 2008. They are putting their public works and debt down to the bid for the Olympics.

Yours Respectfully

KONISHI, Kazuto
President