May 31, 2014
The Honorable Thomas Bach, President

The International Olympic Committee
c/o Mr.Mark Adams,Communications Director
The International Olympic Committee
Chateau de Vidy
Case postale 356
100 Lausanne (IOC), Switzerland

Dear President Bach,We appreciated the IOC’s letter dated 28 May 2014, from Mr. Mark Adams, IOC
Communications Director, on your behalf. We are pleased that the IOC is committed torespecting the environment and creating a sustainable future for the 2020 Olympicvenue. Your statement that environmental concerns are important in the planning andoperation processes right through to the long-term effects of Olympic Games isheartening.
We understand that your representative contacted the Japan Organising Committee
about our concerns, namely that the Japan Sports Council (JSC) has violated theOlympic Movement’s Agenda 21, paragraphs 3.1.6, 3.2.2, and 3.2.3. We also
understand that the Organising Committee assured your representative that theCommittee recognizes our concerns and that the Japan Sports Council is examining theoptimal solution for the design of the stadium.
Unfortunately, the Japan Organising Committee and the Japan Sports Council lied tothe IOC. The JSC is ramming their new stadium project forward in spite of risingobjections by a broad-scoped alliance of citizens, architects, city planners, historians
and media reporters. The situation is extremely urgent because the JSC is all ready forthe demolition of the existing stadium. As Mr. Adams noted in his above-mentioned
letter, the iconic 1964 Tokyo Olympic Stadium is an important part of Japanese sports’history.
The JSC is determined to replace the stadium with a new one. They have ignored ourrepeated requests to renovate the relatively young 56-year-old stadium. They haverefused to consider cost-effective and low-impact alternatives to the JSC’s proposed
stadium – designs suggested by many eminent architects including the 2013 Pritzker
Laureate Toyo Ito.
On Wednesday, May 28, 2014, JSC announced the new stadium design, which,though scaled back from the original, is still a mammoth totally out of sync with its
verdant surroundings. This whole area was landscaped in 1926 as the outer garden of
the Meiji Jingu Shrine, a place of worship dedicated to the spirits of Emperor andEmpress Meiji. The historic area has been carefully conserved with strict buildingheight limits for any construction in the area. Its precious green space serves as an oasis
for Tokyoites and visitors alike. The planned 70-meter-high new stadium with its
affiliated facilities will inevitably decimate the landscaping and greenery in this area.
The JSC’s new stadium plan clearly violates the Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21,paragraph 3. 2. 3, Sports facilities:“A special effort must be made to encourage the best possible use of existing sports
facilities, to keep them in good condition and to improve them by increasing safety andreducing their environmental impact.

The creation of new sports facilities must be confined to cases in which demandcannot be satisfied by using or renovating existing facilities.
The location and construction of new facilities must be in compliance with theprovisions of paragraph 3. 1. 6 of this Agenda 21. These facilities will have to comply
with local legislation and be designed to fit in with the surrounding natural or
man-made scenery.”
The JSC has ignored the IOC’s above stipulations by canceling the original
renovation plan for the existing stadium. Their switching to building a new stadiumviolates your stated policies. In the 2012 international design competition that the JSC
organized, they intentionally ignored the area’s historic and environmental value by
eliminating local legislative limits in the terms of building specifications they released
to competition entrants.
Other relevant authorities, including the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports,
the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and the Japan Olympic Committee, haveminimized publicity on the new design’s detrimental environmental impact in order toevade public criticism. The environmental assessment for this project, in compliancewith IOC’s requirements, has, in truth, yet to be completed.
We request you, therefore, to alert the Organising Committee and the Japan Olympic
Committee to the JSC’s violations of Agenda 21 and to order them to stop the existingstadium’s imminent demolition. We ask you to remind them that we Tokyo citizens are
stakeholders in the national stadium issue and that they should have more respect forour opinions.
Thank you very much for your kind understanding of the grave concerns we haveabout the violations of the Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21 and the fate of historic Meiji
Jingu outer garden area. With every desire for the unparalleled success of the 2020
Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, we ask for your support.
Sincerely yours,(Mrs.) Nobuko Shimizu
Co-chair
The Custodians of the National Stadium, Tokyo