Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Summer Olympics on Saturday, beating Istanbul in a head-to-head vote after Japanese PM Shinzo Abe made a charismatic plea to the International Olympic Committee and promised Japan’s crippled Fukush-ima nuclear plant was “under control”.
Tokyo won what one insider called a “least-ugly” contest by most effectively covering its blemishes. Rival Madrid was laid low by the economy and Istanbul was beset by anti-government protests. Tokyo won by a landslide, 60 votes to Istanbul’s 36, after Madrid was eliminated in the first round. Mr Abe, who left the G-20 summit early, promised the IOC that concerns about Fukushima were unfounded.