2016 Summer Olympics – Tokyo Wants Them, Chicago is Front-runner

The Japanese cabinet has approved Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Japan's capital can now formally submit its candidacy with the IOC….and then forget about it.

It will be only eight years since the Olympics will have been held in Asia – Beijing.

Not much chance I think of the Games coming back to Asia so soon….though just 8 years before that it was in the same hemisphere, though down under.

Japan's central government says it will pay up to half the costs for building major facilities for the Games.

This Friday, the IOC will announce the final list of applicants for the 2016 Games.

A short list will be drawn in June, 2008 and the host city selected in 2009.

Chicao is considered the front runner as the Games haven't been held in the United States since 1996….and the Games can make money in the States.

Tokyo hosted the Games in 1964. The Winter Games were hosted in Hokkaido (1972) and Nagano (1998).