In the end even Super Mario couldn’t save the day. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe began the countdown to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics disguised as Nintendo’s Italian plumber. Now coronavirus has wrenched the timetable back by a year.
There are multiple economic and financial ramifications. More than 15,000 athletes and Paralympic athletes were set to attend, along with many more volunteers, security guards and journalists and an estimated 2m visitors.
Japan needed the boost. Reeling from (another) consumption tax jump last October, the nation veered on the brink of technical recession. Removing the Olympics from 2020 will cut an annualised 0.8 per cent of economic growth, JPMorgan estimates.
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