Japanese Baseball Federation meets with Yuko Arakida, Executive Board Member of Tokyo 2020 Olymic bid

Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid made the first cut among bidders to host the 2020 Olympic Games at a meeting of IOC in Quebec City on May 23

Tokyo. Eiji Hatta, President of Baseball Federation of Japan (BFJ), invited Ms. Yuko Arakida, Executive Board Member of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Bid Committee, to the BFJ’s Congress held on May 23, 2012 to hear from her how BFJ can contribute to the Committee’s ongoing initiative.

Arakida, a member of Women’s National Volleyball Team which won Gold Medal at 1976 Olympics in Montreal, excused herself briefly from the 2012 London Olympic Women’s World Volleyball Final Qualification and the Asian Women’s Qualification event in Tokyo forcefully explained how the previous plans presented to IOC in 2016 have been improved to ensure they are fully integrated with the city and its residents as well as its vision for a compact event to revitalize Japan after the 3/11 disasters.

She noted that twenty-eight of the 31 competition venues, including the Olympic Stadium, would be located within an 8-km radius of the Olympic village which will be built on a pier on Tokyo's waterfront where the Olympic Stadium had been proposed in 2016 bid.

The BFJ’s Congress members gathered from all parts of Japan unanimously approved resolution to support and jointly work with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Bid Committee.

Picture from left: Ichino, President of JABA, Hatta, President of BFJ, Arakida, Suzuki, VP of BFJ, Okushima, President of High School Federation and Tawa

(From IBAF Website)