Waterworks bureau denies hiking ad budget for Olympics

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's waterworks bureau has set aside ¥1.87 billion in advertising expenses for its fiscal 2009 budget, part of which will go on publicizing the capital's campaign to host the 2016 Olympics, metro sources said Thursday.

The amount is double the bureau's fiscal 2008 budget and represents a threefold increase from its fiscal 2006 budget.

Soji Higashioka, head of the waterworks bureau, denied the ad budget was hiked to finance the publicity costs for vying for the summer Olympics against Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

"It's meant to improve the image of Tokyo's tap water," Higashioka claimed. "We have only decided to also use the ad expenses for Tokyo's Olympic campaign incidentally."

However, one senior metro official, who is not affiliated to the waterworks bureau, voiced concern about the use of the bureau's ad expenses for noncore business fields, as its budget is formed under a public enterprise account with revenues coming from water charges.

The official said the waterworks bureau has "undoubtedly" increased its advertising budget for the Olympic bid, which is Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's pet project.

The use of the waterworks bureau's ad budget could help boost citizens' support for Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Games, as support at present remains low, the metro sources said, noting Ishihara is worried by the lack of support.

A survey conducted by the International Olympic Committee in February showed only 56 percent of respondents support Tokyo's games bid, the lowest support rate among the four candidate cities.

Of the ¥1.87 billion in ad expenses, ¥920 million will be used to finance a campaign to promote the sale of Tokyo's tap water. The amount represents a ninefold increase from the ¥100 million in both the fiscal 2007 and 2008 budgets.

Under what the bureau calls the "safe and tasty water project," the waterworks bureau aired a 15-second commercial message on trains and large TV screens on streets in fiscal 2008 to promote the sale of highly purified Tokyo-sui (Tokyo water) in PET bottles. The Olympic bid logos came in the last second of the commercial.

In fiscal 2009, which started April 1, the bureau will spend ¥200 million to expand use of the commercial message and also a separate message aimed at publicizing the water services. It will bear the Olympics bid logos.