Top Japanese firms pull out from Olympic sponsorships

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

October 1,開発 と 平和 の ため の スポーツ の 国際 デー 2024 at 18:45 JST

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The Olympic rings on display at the Odori Koen park in Sapporo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Tire giant Bridgestone Corp. announced on Oct. 1 that it will end its contract with the International Olympic Committee at the end of this year, making it the last remaining Japanese company to withdraw from the Games. 

Panasonic Holdings Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. have already announced that they will also end their sponsorship contracts with the IOC at the end of the year.

Bridgestone will not renew its contract as one of the IOC's TOP sponsors, which is the highest level of Olympic sponsorship and had been in place from 2014 until the end of 2024.

Going forward, the company said it will “focus on sustainable global motorsports activities.”

The highest-ranking IOC sponsorship of a Japanese company dates to the 1980s, when Panasonic Holdings Corp., which was then Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Brother Industries Ltd., and Ricoh Co. inked contracts with the IOC.

The Olympics took a major step toward commercialization with the 1984 Los Angeles Games. The quadrennial sports event used to be a prestigious showcase for companies to advertise their products to the world.

In recent years, however, the commercialization of the Olympics has come under criticism. 

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a debate over whether the 2020 Tokyo Olympics should be held.

Corruption scandals involving the arrest of a senior member of the Tokyo Games’ organizing committee also tarnished the image of the Olympics.

Some companies have been turned off by this “negative” aspect of the Games.

For other companies, their core businesses are changing, and the perception that exposure at the Olympics will not necessarily lead to commercial opportunities is also prompting the shift from sponsorship.

Toyota has served as a highest-ranking sponsor under a 10-year contract starting in 2015. The company has provided vehicles for officials and athletes at five Summer and Winter Games during that period. According to officials, Toyota has paid approximately 200 billion yen ($1.4 billion) to the IOC.

Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota, said in the company-owned media channel on Sept. 26 that the reason for not continuing the sponsorship agreement was that it “did not lead to support for the athletes.”

Toyoda said that he had always doubts about the IOC’s “one company per industry” sponsorship rule because he believes that each manufacturer in the auto industry “carries the backbone of the country.”

He revealed that Toyota had to make difficult adjustments with the local car manufacturer in the host city for each Olympic event.

Toyoda also pointed out problems with holding the Games in the mid-summer and events late at night with Western TV viewers in mind. He also mentioned that the Games have become more politically charged.

“I always wondered if they were good for the athletes,” he said.

The automaker intends to continue providing direct support to athletes and equipment for sports for the disabled even after the sponsorship agreement ends, Toyoda said.

Toyota has supported more than 250 athletes around the world and sent 179 athletes to the recent 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics.

Although it will no longer use the Olympic logo or provide vehicles to the Games, “It wasn’t the cost aspect that troubled me,” Toyoda said.

Panasonic was the first Japanese company to serve as a highest-ranking sponsor of the Olympics, and it had kept the status since 1987 when it signed the agreement.

The company has participated as a sponsor in the field of audio and video equipment, supplying projectors and displays to the Games.

But the company announced its withdrawal in September. In the past, a high percentage of the company’s sales came from audio and visual equipment.

So the aim was to capitalize on the commercial opportunities presented by the Olympics in broadcasting equipment and TVs.

In recent years, however, these areas are no longer central to the company’s business.

Panasonic stated the reason for its decision to withdraw from the Games is that “we have examined the way we should be in response to changes in the business environment and the nature of our business.”

Hirotaka Matsuoka, a professor of sports management at Waseda University, said, “The stagnant Japanese economy has meant that companies can no longer afford expensive sponsorship deals.”

He cited the decreasing number of Japanese companies sponsoring the World Cup soccer tournament, with Chinese and Middle Eastern companies taking their places.

“With the Tokyo Olympics, which were held in Japan, coming to an end, the withdrawal of Japanese companies one after another is to be expected,” Matsuoka said.

(This article was written by Nanami Watanabe and Kaname Ohira.)