Bridgestone latest Japanese firm to end Olympics sponsorship

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TOKYO – Tyre giant Bridgestone has become the latest Japanese firm to end its Olympics and Paralympics sponsorship, following pullouts by Toyota and Panasonic, saying it wants to focus on motorsport.
The firms have been cryptic about the reasons for their decisions but analysts point to the ill-fated 2020 Tokyo Olympics and declining viewer numbers among young people.
Bridgestone said on Tuesday that it would not renew sponsorship deals with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the Olympics and Paralympics, dating back to 2014 and 2018 respectively, that expire this year.
Bridgestone “strongly believes in the IOC’s vision of ‘building a better world through sport’ and… ‘an inclusive world through Para Sport’,” it said.
It will now concentrate more on motorsport events where tyre products “can directly challenge performance, drive innovation, and create widespread value”, Bridgestone said in a statement.
Japanese electronics giant Panasonic and auto titan Toyota said last month they had also decided to end their Olympics partnerships.
Toyota, the biggest automaker by sales, has reportedly spent some $835 million since signing a deal with the IOC in 2015.
Toyota’s chairman Akio Toyoda said on a podcast last month that the Olympics were “becoming increasingly political” and questioned “whether the event is truly putting athletes 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.
Former IOC marketing director Michael Payne told AFP he thinks Toyoda’s politics remark was aimed closer to home after the 2020 Tokyo Games were delayed a year by the Covid pandemic and then took place largely behind closed doors.
“I think this quote may have had more to do with how Japanese politicians politicised the Olympics –- which was a great pity,” said the 66-year-old Irishman.
“They destroyed the potential of their own Games, with their distorted approach to the whole affair.
“Lockdown for the Olympics, but no lockdown for local baseball or Sumo wrestling.
“(It was) political grandstanding at its worst, and well understandable for sponsors to be fed up with this attitude.”
Panasonic, whose partnership with the Olympics dates back to 1987, was even less forthcoming than Toyota about their reasons.
It said it decided to let the contract expire “as the group continually reviews how sponsorship should evolve with broader management considerations”.