The accounts were not accurate.
In a report released on Wednesday, the Japanese Court of Accounts said the actual cost of the Tokyo Olympics was 1.699 billion yen, or 12.1 billion euros.
However, last June, the organizers announced a cost of 1,424 billion yen.
The actual sum would therefore be 20% higher than that announced.
The Court of Auditors explains that the organizers would have, wrongly, omitted to include certain government expenses such as anti-doping measures, the training of athletes, Japanese food in the Olympic Village or the new Olympic stadium.
In its candidacy file, the budget for these Olympics had even been estimated at 734 billion yen (half less), but the postponement of the event due to the COVID-19 crisis generated additional expenses.
The Japanese Court of Auditors now requires the government to "disclose (in the future) the total costs in a timely manner when it is substantially involved in a major event".
Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said the government took the SAI's report "seriously" and would respond to it "appropriately".
This announcement from the Court of Auditors is added to the list of scandals.
This Thursday began the trial of the scandal of bribes around sponsorship contracts and the three accused (former leaders of Aoki Holdings, Japanese clothing chain sponsors of the 2020 Olympics) pleaded guilty, according to the television channel Japanese NHK.
Japan is a candidate to host the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sapporo (north of the country), but earlier this week, the city hall of Sapporo suspended the promotional events of the candidature and now plans to conduct a national poll for gauge public support.
