World Athletics Moving Away from Dentsū After Olympics Scandals?

Athletics Foundation Looking for Sponsors Online

The Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Foundation has made the following statement on the sponsorship policy page of its website: “For this event, our vision is to establish a new future global standard for international sports—the ‘Tokyo Model’—through trustworthy organizational management exemplifying fairness. Reflecting this vision, our sponsorship sales policy introduces a highly transparent approach, including bidding based on business categories.”

Transparency is being emphasized in light of the lessons learned from the scandals surrounding the Tokyo Olympics, and sponsorship acquisition and other marketing activities for the World Athletics Championships are being carried out with this in mind.

Official sponsors with commercial rights in Japan are divided into three levels based on sponsorship contribution:

• Principal sponsors (contribution of at least ¥300 million per company)
• Supporters (contribution of at least ¥100 million per company)
• Suppliers (contribution of at least ¥30 million per company)

These conditions were made public and a system was adopted in which official sponsors are selected through a bidding process.

Sponsors obtain the right to use the name “Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships” and to conduct commercial activities using the event logo. They receive up to 20 privileges, including the right to advertise in the venues, place ads in official publications, and acquire complimentary tickets. These rights are allocated according to contribution amount, with the foundation publishing the details on its website.

In the past, many sponsorship agreements included confidentiality clauses that prevented terms from being disclosed, resulting in a lack of transparency. The fact that the details are clearly disclosed this time can be considered something that distinguishes this event.

As a result of the bidding, four companies were chosen as “principal sponsors”: Kinki Nippon Tourist, Mori Building, TBS, and Tokyo Metro. Five were chosen for the next tier, “supporters”: Kintetsu World Express Sales, Medical Concierge, Pia, Alsok, and Tokyo Gas. Four were chosen as “suppliers”: Asahi Shimbun, Live Board, Nishi Athletic Goods Co., Ltd., and Revo International.

The foundation initially expected total costs for the World Athletics Championships to amount to ¥15 billion. Funding would come from a mix of sources, including ¥8 billion from national and metropolitan governments, ¥3 billion from ticket sales, and ¥3 billion from sponsorships and donations, with the final ¥1 billion to be covered by the Japan Association of Athletics Federations.

At a board meeting, the foundation’s financial plan was revised. Ticket revenue was raised by ¥1.4 billion to¥4.4 billion and sponsorship and donations were raised by ¥1 billion to ¥4 billion. Also, the total event cost was raised to ¥17.4 billion. If actual revenues meet the projected figures, the target will have been achieved.

Large-Scale Corruption at the Tokyo Olympics

The reason the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Foundation solicited sponsors without going through an advertising agency because of the series of scandals surrounding the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. These included bribery in the selection of sponsors and bid rigging in the selection of companies to run test events and the main event.

Headquarters of advertising giant Dentsū in Minato, Tokyo. November 2022. (© Jiji)

In the bribery case, former Dentsū executive Takahashi Haruyuki, who was regarded as a leading figure in the sports business world, used his position as Tokyo 2020 organizing committee executive to provide favors in sponsor selection and licensing deals in exchange for bribes. Many of those who were involved in paying the bribes were also arrested and prosecuted. The scandal revealed corruption lurking beneath the surface of a major celebration.

Dentsū was also heavily involved in a bid rigging case involving not only the organizing committee but also event production companies, advertising agencies, and other firms, with the work for operating test events and the main event divided up and allocated without fair, competitive bidding. The Dentsū Group was handed a guilty verdict by the Tokyo High Court and fined ¥300 million, but has filed an appeal against the ruling.

Official Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic merchandise. (© Jiji)

The exclusive agent contract between the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and Dentsū was made in 2014, the year after Tokyo was awarded the Olympic and Paralympic Games. At the time, Dentsū proudly proclaimed, “We will utilize our long-cultivated expertise and know-how in the sports business and mobilize the full strength of our group to contribute to the success of the Games.”

Dentsū reportedly guaranteed the organizing committee a minimum of ¥180 billion in sponsorship revenue. In the end, sponsorships totaled ¥376.1 billion from 68 Japanese companies. However, as the incidents revealed, Dentsū’s “expertise” and “know-how” were not rooted in fairness. The scandal laid bare how Japan’s reliance on Dentsū in major sporting events was being exploited.

Movement for Sports Independence in the 1990s

The sports world had tried to become more economically independent in the past. Five years prior to the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, the Japan Olympic Committee established a company called Japan Olympic Marketing in an effort to handle its own commercial activities.

However, internal conflict within the JOC forced a return to outsourcing through an agency, with Dentsū ultimately securing exclusive agent rights. JOM fell apart in just seven years. Meanwhile, many other sports organizations were becoming increasingly reliant on Dentsū.

Dentsū’s influence extends overseas as well, reaching beyond the Olympics to the Soccer World Cup and other major international sporting events. In athletics, the company signed an exclusive marketing rights contract with World Athletics in 2001, a deal that will last until 2029. Dentsū has indeed secured long-term commercial rights on a global scale.

The fact that the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Foundation distanced itself from Dentsū in a domain in which the company is highly influential and instead solicited domestic sponsors itself signals a shift in the sports business world, which had been long dependent on Dentsū.

Looking Ahead to Events Without Dentsū

The Asian Games, considered to be the Olympics for Asia, will be held from September to October next year, cohosted by Aichi Prefecture and the city of Nagoya. It is a massive competition, with even more event categories than the Olympics. Dentsū had initially been appointed as the agent, but following the Tokyo Olympics scandal, the company withdrew. Marketing duties are now being handled by four firms, led by local advertising agency Shintō Tsūshin.

Nagoya mayor Hirosawa Ichirō (left) and former Japan national soccer team goalkeeper Narazaki Seigō unveil a countdown board for the 2026 Asian Games in Naka Ward, Nagoya, on May 7, 2025. (© Jiji)

Sponsors are being solicited at four levels: ¥2 billion, ¥1 billion, ¥500 million, and ¥100 million. Possibly due to the fallout from the Olympic corruption scandal, company participation has been slow, and the effort to attract sponsors cannot yet be considered a success. Even so, the organizing committee has made the sponsorship procedures and bidding information public on its website, just as the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Foundation has.

The Tokyo Deaflympics, an international sports event for athletes with hearing disabilities, will be held this November, and its planning and management headquarters has not outsourced to an ad agency either, instead soliciting sponsors on its website and having its staff visit companies in person. To date, sponsorship agreements have been made with over 100 companies and organizations, and a portion of the operational budget is being raised through crowdfunding.

The “Tokyo Model” as a Litmus Test

When the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Foundation was established two years ago, its head, Ogata Mitsugi (then president of JAAF) remarked, “When top athletes from around the world gather and perform before great cheering crowds, it uplifts people’s spirits and gives them energy, demonstrating the beauty and value of sports. We want to build a new model for international sporting events in the wake of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. To achieve this, it is essential that the organization preparing and managing the event has effective governance.”

The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games were held largely without spectators due to pandemic restrictions. Some even questioned whether the events should have taken place at all. On top of that came the multiple scandals. As seen when Sapporo withdrew its bid for the Winter Olympics due to a lack of public support, society’s distrust toward big events has yet to fade.

The Japan National Stadium, which served as the main venue for the Olympics, will soon be filled with spectators for the World Athletics Championships. For the public to truly embrace the event, the business of sports that happens behind the scenes must be made more transparent, with fairness ensured just as in the competitions themselves. If successful, the “Tokyo Model” could offer a blueprint for a more independent and accountable future in international sports.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: The Japan National Stadium in central Tokyo, where the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships will be held. Photo taken on August 25, 2025. © Richard A. Brooks/AFP/Jiji.)