Tickets bought for 2020 Tokyo Games to be honored in 2021

TOKYO, Mar 26, 2020, The Japan News. Tickets bought for the now-postponed Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games will be valid for those events when they are eventually held, the organizing committee for the Games has decided, The Japan News reported.

The committee is also considering such measures as refunding the cost of tickets for purchasers who no longer need them, so they will not suffer a financial loss.

In-store sales of tickets to the Games had been scheduled to start in Tokyo in April. According to a source connected with the Games, however, those sales will temporarily be suspended as a result of the decision to postpone the Games for about a year.

Since last year, about 4.47 million tickets have been sold for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and about 970,000 for the Paralympics, for a total of about 5.44 million. The organizing committee intends not to void these tickets, but to have them be good for events at the postponed Games.

The committee is considering such measures as refunding the price of the tickets or allowing purchasers to put them up for sale on the official resale site, should buyers want their money back.

When the marathon events originally scheduled to be held in Tokyo were relocated to Sapporo last year, the organizing committee took the approach of refunding the cost of tickets that had already been purchased.

“We won’t betray the hopes of the ticket buyers who had been looking forward to the Games,” the source related to the Games said.