Toyota, Bridgestone, And Panasonic End Olympic Contracts

Three major Japanese sponsors of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)—Toyota, Panasonic, and Bridgestone—are terminating their contracts, leaving the IOC without a Japanese sponsor.

Chairman Akio Toyoda told a meeting of U.S. dealerships last month that the IOC's goals no longer aligned with the automaker’s vision. I Photo: Matthew Lewis, Getty Images for IOC / Toyota Europe Newsroom

The focus is now expected to shift to the Middle East and India for new sponsorship deals, according to a report by Yuri Kageyama for the Associated Press (AP).

Japanese sponsors have distanced themselves from the Olympics, likely due to the one-year delay of the 2020 Tokyo Games, which reduced sponsor visibility with no fans allowed at the competition venues, increased costs, and uncovered multiple corruption scandals.

These three companies are part of the 15 so-called TOP Olympic sponsors, who collectively paid over $2 billion to the IOC in the last four-year Olympic cycle.

Toyota Motor Corp. confirmed it would not renew its sponsorship after the Paris Games, which ended in August. Chairman Akio Toyoda told a meeting of U.S. dealerships last month that the IOC's goals no longer aligned with the automaker’s vision.

"Honestly, I’m not sure they (IOC) are truly focused on putting people first. For me, the Olympics should simply be about watching athletes from all walks of life with all types of challenges achieve their impossible," Toyoda said in English.

He promised to continue supporting individual Olympic and Paralympic athletes, as well as the Paralympic Games.