The price of the opening and closing ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics has risen about 40 percent according to numbers released by the organizing committee. Toshiro Muto, the chief executive of the games, told executive committee members on Friday that the cost for the ceremonies would be capped at 13 billion yen, about $118 million. Tokyo estimated that cost at 9.1 billion yen - about $82 billion - when Tokyo was awarded the games in 2013. Despite the increase, Muto said the privately funded operating budget of 600 billion yen - about $5.5 billion - would be unchanged. He said there was a reserve fund for such increases. Muto said ''using London Olympics spending as a model, I think this is the minimum we need to spend to get the job done.'' The organizing committee said last year that Mansai Nomura, who is a renowned actor in traditional Japanese theater, would be the chief creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics. Overall, Tokyo is spending at least $20 billion to ready the city for the Olympics. Excluding the operating budget, the rest comes from the national, city and regional governments. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
