In the face of strong local opposition, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) and Sapporo will explore the idea of changing the city¡¯s 2030 Winter Olympics bid to one for the 2034 edition.

The move comes despite the re-election of Katsuhiro Akimoto, who was supportive of Sapporo¡¯s Olympic bid, as the city¡¯s mayor on Sunday over two candidates who were opposed to it.

But exit polls by the Hokkaido Shimbun showed that 60% of Sapporo voters opposed the bid, while 34.9% were supportive. A separate Jiji Press exit poll also showed that 53% of Sapporo voters were opposed to the 2030 bid, compared with the 27% who supported it.