Three major Japanese companies have confirmed they will not renew their sponsorship contracts with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The three companies—Toyota, Panasonic, and Bridgestone—are among the 15 TOP Olympic sponsors. Their announcement came after the 2024 Paris Games concluded in August.
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said on Sept. 26 that his company will not renew its contract with the IOC over concerns that athletes are not being prioritized enough and the political influence surrounding the Games.
“[The Olympic Games] became more politically tinged, and I constantly questioned whether this was best for the athletes. That’s why we chose to stop after Paris, as originally agreed.”
Toyoda said the carmaker will continue to provide financial support to individual Olympic and Paralympic athletes, as well as to the International Paralympic Committee through its mobility foundation.
Toyota Motor Corporation, the world’s largest carmaker, struck a 10-year sponsorship contract with the IOC in 2015, which was valued at $835 million, according to local media.
Weeks before Toyota’s announcement, Panasonic said it was ending its sponsorship as the company reviewed “how sponsorship should evolve with broader management considerations.”
The Japanese electronics company first became an official worldwide partner of the Olympic Games in 1987 and expanded its partnership to the Paralympic Games in 2014.
IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement on Sept. 10 that its partnership had ended in “a respectful and friendly way.”
“The IOC understands and fully respects that the Panasonic Group has to adapt its business strategy,” Bach stated, while thanking Panasonic for its contribution throughout its four decades of partnership.
Bridgestone Corp., a Tokyo-based tire manufacturer that has been an Olympic Partner since 2014, is the latest Japanese company to pull out of an IOC sponsorship deal.
“The decision comes after an evaluation of the company’s evolving corporate brand strategy and its recommitment to more endemic global motorsports platforms,” the company said in a statement on Oct. 1.
Responding to a media inquiry, the IOC said that partners leave the program for a variety of reasons, including changes in their industry, market dynamics, or shifts in their marketing strategy.
“As their announcements underline, these are decisions based on their respective business strategies and the companies underlined that they continue to strongly believe in the vision of the IOC and the power of the Olympic Games,” the IOC said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“Over the past 40 years, over 30 different multinational companies from around the world have been part of the TOP Programme and for the next cycle we already have agreements 11 Partners,” it added.
The IOC had an income of $7.6 billion in the past four-year cycle ending with the Tokyo Games. Figures have not been released yet for the cycle ending with the Paris Olympics. The IOC’s TOP sponsors paid more than $2 billion in that period.
The Tokyo Games, held in 2021, were plagued by corruption scandals that led to 15 people being indicted, including a former executive of the organizing committee, Haruyuki Takahashi, who was accused of accepting bribes in exchange for sponsorship contracts.
