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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow

Shinano Mainichi

Public information rules lacking

Olympic preparatory materials must be preserved for future use

He brings up the circumstances of preparation when speaking on details of the bid and host site decision. He often touches upon the "missing account ledger problem" as well. "I was the one person at that time who gave the order to get rid of the ledger. Once the bid committee was disbanded, our obligation to keep an account book was finished. I would like you to understand that I have nothing to be ashamed of." His assertion is explicit. However, the "account ledger problem" continues to drag on.

A group of citizens opposed to the Nagano Olympics sued Nagano Governor Yoshimura and the bid committee in appellate court to restore all public expenditure used in the bid process. At the end of March 1997 the Tokyo Higher Court came to the same decision as that of the original trial-- rejecting the citizens claims for restoration of public expenditure. The Court also failed to touch upon the issue of the missing ledger.

Masao Ezawa, who lead the group of citizens in appeals all the way to Japan's Supreme Court complains, "The courts basically confirmed, after it all was basically finished, that types of groups like the bid committee can set up a similar organization and be free from the watching eyes of the citizens."

To the bid committee administration at that time, the "thorny " missing ledger problem is just one of the seeds doubt which has been planted in the Nagano Olympics. What are the citizens to think about the huge amount of expenditure exhausted on events involving so many people and enterprises? The account ledger affair is bringing the serious problem of public information to bear.

Documents piled up at the offices of NAOC. Residents and the Olympics may grow further apart depending on how these materials are kept and whether or not they are made public.

NAOC was started in 1991 after the disorganization of the bid committee. As the organization responsible for administering the Games, they obviously are holding onto a huge amount of documents and other materials. But, being registered as a private non-profit foundation, they are not subject to public information regulations. In a financial outlook statement made public in March, only one figure was listed, that competition and facility expenses would amount to roughly 14 billion yen. It is difficult to comprehend the details of the total 103 billion yen slated for expenditure, among which includes Prefecture and City assistance for administrative expense assistance of 5 billion yen, along with 7.1 billion yen in assistance for personnel expenses.

NAOC's account ledgers, along with transactions and contracts between the IOC and athletic organizations, in principle are to be kept "for many years" according to internal regulations within NAOC. But, NAOC's General Affairs Section explains that the period of safekeeping "for documents recording insignificant transactions or documents with only minimal priority" is decided by the vice-directors and department directors.

What will happen to all of these documents one year after all unfinished Olympic business is completed and NAOC is dissolved? NAOC General Affairs Director Sadao Shibamoto says that even though they will "request that Nagano City be responsible for preserving Olympic documentation" there is also the fact that "the scope of such a project has not been determined. Account ledgers will of course be kept, but some documents detailing unresolved problems and the like will be difficult to store."

It is also unclear whether documents kept for safekeeping will be handled as open public documents. Some at NAOC suggest that "Nagano City use space in the M-Wave venue that will be designated as an 'Olympic Commemorative Hall' for archives." But the City's Olympic Bureau says, "Exhibitions are the main focus of the Hall, there is no archival space." There has been no further discussion on the issue.

With still no rules for making this information public, the "account ledger problem" hasn't taught any lessons to those involved. It is possible and necessary to make public not only account ledgers, but also all preparatory documents used for these Olympics in order to communicate this important information to future generations. It is imperative that these regulations, which are ultimately decided by NAOC, be looked into and implemented as soon as possible.

In early April, Lillehammer College Professor Dag Leonardsen (age 48), who is researching the after-effects of the Olympics in that region, visited Nagano City.

After speaking with NAOC and local groups opposed to the Nagano Olympics, Leonardsen pointed out, "There is a tendency for large events like the Olympics to become very secretive. The Organizing Committee in Lillehammer was also exempt from public information laws. But if things develop apart from the citizens without documents for future verification, complaints could arise that the whole event was a failure."

What will hosting the Olympics bring about for this region? On the contrary, what has the region given up? NAOC and local administrative agencies have the responsibility to forget about whether they agree or disagree and make this information public-- so that the region's citizens may make up their own minds on the outcome-- success or failure-- of the Nagano Olympics.

The Olympic Account Ledger Problem in brief The Nagano Olympic Bid Committee, organized in 1986, led the region to be chosen in June 1988 as the national host site, and then in June 1991 as the site for the 1998 Winter Olympics. It was disbanded in October 1991. During this time they spent 1.96 billion yen on bid-related activities. Income at that time came in the form of contributions from local enterprises, along with 920 million yen in public funding from the Prefectural government. In 1992, a citizen's group opposed to the Olympics demanded an audit on the grounds that "the Prefecture's use of public funds for the bid was illegal." In the process of a civil suit it was discovered that account ledger detailing the bid committee's expenditures "was not kept." The group charged Nagano Governor Yoshimura and Nagano City Mayor Tsukada with destruction of public documents, but in March 1995 the Nagano District Public Prosecutor's Office ruled that "the account ledger was not classified as a public document, and that after internal audits were complete there was no longer any obligation to keep it," and therefore dropped the case.

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Copyright 1999 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun