In a wide-ranging interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Watanabe, who is also a member of the Tokyo 2020 Executive Board, suggested that the Japanese capital should "underscore the significance and effects of the Olympics on Japanese society".

"What effects will be produced if elderly people work as volunteers and start engaging in physical activity after the Games end?," Watanabe, elected a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in October 2018, said.

"How can the latest technologies for top athletes be used for health care targeting aged individuals?

"Tokyo can present those effects."

The Organising Committee is aspiring to host the most innovative and engaging Olympics and Paralympics to date, and while Watanabe claims the IOC expects Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 will give "something extra", he believes that Tokyo 2020 seemingly cannot.

"Tokyo may have a vision, but the vision has not been embodied in concrete strategies or action plans," he told The Asahi Shimbun. 

Asked about what efforts he will make to resolve the issue as a member of the Organising Committee, Watanabe added: "We have to urge not only the public sectors but also academic and business communities to cooperate more actively.

"t will be difficult for them to work closely because their ways of thinking are different.

"The Organising Committee, as part of the public sector, should concentrate on management of the Games, while corporations and other private organisations, as well as colleges and other types of academic institutions, should voluntarily make their own efforts to improve the Olympics.

"If private organisations work separately on their own, their projects will exert little impact.

"A single company staging its own campaign alone will not be effective.

"Corporations should form teams with Olympic sponsors at the core to promote large-scale campaigns across Japan.

"Under the initiative of the bureaucratic Organising Committee, the Tokyo Games would be only for a limited number of people.

"As members of a mature city, citizens must join forces to create the Olympics."

Last month, Tokyo 2020 released the third version of its budget and as expected the announced figure remained the same at ¥1.35 trillion (£9.7 billion/$12.4 billion/€10.8 billion).

In October, IOC Coordination Commission chair John Coates dismissed a report by Japan’s Audit Board which claimed the Games could cost ¥3 trillion (£21.5 billion/$27.7 billion/€24.1 billion).

He insisted the figure included projects that were "not Games costs that Tokyo 2020 should be burdened with".

Watanabe warned that costs should not be concealed and that the expenses along with the benefits ought to be disclosed.

"If benefits from the Olympics, including the effects on the increasingly aging society, are estimated, it will become clear that investments can easily be recovered," he told The Asahi Shimbun.

"While the Organising Committee has been taking the initiative toward the Olympics so far, sports associations with know-how about sports and event management should be more involved.

"An advertising agent initially estimated the costs of the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo at ¥2.5 billion (£17.9 million/$23.1 million/€20.1 million), but the gymnastics association set up a committee to organise the championships on its own, reducing the expenses to ¥1.1 billion (£7.9 million/$10.1 million/€8.8 million).

"The costs increase because those who do not have the know-how organise the Games."