The capital's Metropolitan Government, the Japanese Government and Local Governments of seven prefectures and four cities which will host events were all involved.

Kyodo News reports leaders and representatives from the seven prefectures - Hokkaido, Miyagi, Fukushima, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa and Shizuoka - and the four cities - Sapporo, Saitama, Chiba and Yokohama - "expressed pleasure" that the Metropolitan Government included the original candidature file, submitted to the International Olympic Committee in 2013, as a document to use as a basis for further discussions on the matter.

The file states that Local Governments staging competitions will cover the bills for areas including medical services and security transportation to and from venues, but that <st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo will cover costs for temporary facilities for venues outside of the Japanese capital.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike described the broad agreement as "a big step forward" that would give stakeholders the opportunity to accelerate preparations towards hosting a successful Olympic Games in 2020.

Koike had said earlier this month that the Metropolitan Government will likely cover the costs of constructing temporary facilities outside of Tokyo for the 2020 Games.

In December, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee unveiled a budget of between ¥1.6 trillion (£11.3 billion/$14.4 billion/€12.9 billion) and ¥1.8 trillion (£12.7 billion/$16.3 billion/€14.5 billion).

It was down from the the maximum budget cap of ¥2 trillion (£14.1 billion/$18.1 billion/€16.1 billion) cited by Tokyo 2020 President Yoshirō Mori the previous month.

A streamlined figure indicated by the Metropolitan Government today for the amount to be paid by related Regional Governments stood at ¥35 billion (£246 million/$316 million/€282 million), down from an earlier estimate of ¥40 billion (£282 million/$361 million/€322 million).( insidethegames.biz)