June 5, 2014
Honorable Thomas BachPresident, the International Olympic Committee
Chateau de VIdy
1007 Lausanne, Switzerland
Tel: +41 21 621 6111

Fax: +41 21 621 6356

c/o Mr. Mark Adams, the Communications Director

Dear President Bach:As an expert on the presidential position of the International Association for Impact
Assessment (IAIA), 2007-2010, and also the Examiner on environmental and social
considerations of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), I have to express
my grave concern about the Japan Sports Council’s (JSC’s) violation of the Olympic
Movement’s Agenda 21, paragraph 3.2.1., Methodology of Environmental Action for theOlympic Movement. Even as I write now, the JSC, the administrator of the nationalstadium in Jingu Gaien, is hastening to dismantle the perfectly repairable andimprovable present stadium. They will destroy the valuable stadium in the history ofmodern Olympic Games without waiting for the completion of the environmental impact
assessment process presently being conducted under the direction of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Government.
Tokyo Metropolitan officials have said that the current procedure meets the IOC’s
environmental guidelines for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. However,I have to say that the procedure does not meet IOC guidelines, which should be oninternational standard shared by IAIA members such as the experts of the World Bank
or JICA and so forth. A procedure for a true EIA must have a rule to dictate that theproposed development project could not begin until the EIA process was fully completed.
The procedure has to also provide for an investigation of relevant scope of alternatives
to the proposed project including renovation of the present stadium, the legacy of 1964
Tokyo Olympic Games. The current procedure fails on both of these points.
In fact, the Japanese laws on EIA of the national government and local governments
prohibit any new project starts before EIA process is completed. Therefore, in giving afree hand to the JSC, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is ignoring establishedlegislation in Japan.

The JSC has adamantly refused any dialogue with those who are protesting its plan. It
has also refused to consider alternative proposals by a broad-scoped coalition ofconcerned citizens, prominent architects, city planners, environmentalists and various
stakeholders in the national stadium and supporters of the Olympic Games.
Because of my keen concern about the imminent demolition of the present stadium,
which would be started from July 1, I am forced to alert you to possible stains thissituation might bring to the glorious history of the Olympics. I request you, therefore, toimmediately order the Japan Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Metropolitan
Government to stop the JSC from dismantling the present national stadium andimplement a true EIA process of international standard.
And, please also advise them to take note of the rising swell of public opinions against
the demolition recently expressed in leading newspaper editorials such as the Asahi
dated May 25, 2014 and the Nihon Keizai Economic Journal dated June 1, 2014, tomention a few. These editorials ask for transparency and productive dialogue on whatfacilities Japanese should prepare for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The existing national stadium is too “mottai-nai” to destroy. Roughly translated “what awaste,” the traditional Japanese term, “mottai-nai,” has a profound and ethical sense of
not abusing things. It embodies the concept of sustainability and has been publicizedoutside Japan by Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, Vice Minister of theEnvironment and Nobel Prize laureate. I am confident that to stop the destruction ofthe national stadium and to conserve it as the legacy of 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games isprecisely the way to promote and instill the spirit of the Olympic Movement’s Agenda 21
into the whole Japanese society and worldwide.
Thank you very much for kindly considering my requests.

Sincerely yours,

Sachihiko Harashina

Dr. of Engineering

Dean and Professor, Faculty of Policy Informatics, Chiba University of Commerce
Professor Emeritus, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Examiner, Japan International Cooperation Agency
sahara@cuc.ac.jp