Tokyo's Olympic committee is attempting to refute suggestions that the city's 2016 Olympic bid is facing eroding public support.
On Friday, the Reuters news agency said it had obtained a confidential IOC survey, stating that only 56 percent of those questioned favored bringing the Games to Japan.
But today, Tokyo 2016 Chairman Ichiro Kono, said a more recent poll suggests over three fourths of those surveyed favor bringing the games back to the Japanese capital.
"Tokyo 2016 has been informed of the IOC public opinion poll conducted in February 2009," said Kono. "We respect the decision of the IOC to release the data in their report. But we can confirm that since the highly successful IOC Evaluation visit, our own polls and independent polls consistently show high rates of support."
Kono says an independent poll taken immediately after the visit of the Evaluation Commission, showed national support for the Tokyo bid running at 76%, the equivalent of 97 million Japanese citizens. That contrasts with a Tokyo 2016 survey taken in January, which indicated that 69% of Tokyo citizens supported the bid.
"We can confidently predict full stadiums for every event," said Kono, "Ensuring that the stage is set for Olympic and Paralympic heroes."
The IOC Evaluation Commission just completed a visit to Rio de Janeiro, and will travel next to Madrid, the last of the four candidate cities they will consider. During their visit to Chicago, they declined to reveal the contents of their own internal polling, but Chicago 2016 says its own internal surveys indicate 78% favor bringing the games here.
