TOKYO (AP) — An open conflict broke out between Tokyo Olympic organisers and the IOC on Tuesday over who will pay for the unprecedented year-long postponement.

Tokyo spokesman Masa Takaya said the organising committee asked the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee to remove a comment from its website suggesting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed that Japan would shoulder most of the postponement costs.

Media reports in Japan estimate the year-long delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic will cost $2 billion to $6 billion. Neither side has given an official estimate, but Tokyo CEO Toshiro Muto has called the postponement costs “massive.”

“It’s not appropriate for the prime minister’s name to be quoted in this manner,” Takaya said on a 90-minute teleconference.

Almost all of the questions, mostly from Japanese reporters, centred on the IOC’s statement and the costs for Japan.

The IOC statement, on a page titled “Frequently Asked Questions about Olympic Games Tokyo 2020,” said Abe agreed that Japan “will continue to cover the costs it would have done under the terms of the existing agreement for 2020, and the IOC will continue to be responsible for its share of the costs.”

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