The venue which hosted track and field events at the 1964 Olympic Games, was due to be knocked down last month to clear the way for a new 80,000-seat stadium.

But a fresh round of bidding for the project has been ordered following a complaint of irregularities in an earlier round this summer.

This has set back the commencement of proceedings until at least the middle of December, something Mori, the chairman of Tokyo 2020 and President of the Japan Rugby Football Union, is concerned about.

"I'm worried, the Olympics are for Tokyo, but we will have about 12 Rugby World Cup venues spread around the country," he told a meeting of city officials in charge of the Rugby World Cup.

"Because we'll open up all of Japan for everyone to see, we want the success of 2019 to carry over to the Tokyo Olympics."

Award-winning architect Zaha Hadid's design of the new National Stadium has been criticised ©Zaha Hadid Architects



Planning for the new Stadium, designed by award-winning British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, has been plagued by problems, including complaints from some prominent architects, who say the futuristic design is too large and expensive.

The initial projected cost of 130 billion yen (£808 million/$1.3 billion/€1 billion) had ballooned to more than double that, although it is expected to be scaled down.

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