Tokyo intends to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics as a "big catalyst" for Japan's recovery from last month's quake-tsunami disaster.
Shintaro Ishihara was set to win a fourth term as Tokyo governor in local elections across the country which focused on ways to revive Japan after a 9.0-magnitude quake and monster tsunami ravaged its Pacific coast.
"Although they (the 2020 Games) are nine years from now,we can start raising our hand now," he said."If we will work hard with hopes for nine years ahead,it will be a big catalyst for our country's reconstruction and revival."
In late 2009,Tokyo lost out to Rio de Janeiro in the race for the 2016 Summer Olympics after spending some 15 billion yen (￡107 million) on the bid to stage what it called compact and eco-friendly games.
"There seems to be some tendency within the International Olympic Committee to help Japan,at any rate nine years later when it is expected to have been revived," Ishihara said.
The failed bid was one of two major failures cited in his 12 years at the helm of one of the world's biggest megalopolises.The other was heavy investment in a city-run bank that he helped create but which has fallen deeply into the red.
Candidates for 2020 must submit their bids to the IOC by September 1 this year.The host city will be chosen in Buenos Aires in September 2013.
Berlin,Busan,Cape Town,Doha,Rome and Istanbul are among cities which have signalled their interest in bidding to host the 2020 event in recent years.