Japanese Olympic chief Tsunekazu Takeda quits amid vote-buying scandal

The president of the Japanese Olympic Committee has announced he is to stand down amid a vote-buying scandal that French investigators suspect helped Tokyo land next year's Games.

Tsunekazu Takeda has announced he will resign when his term ends in June, but again denied corruption allegations against him.

"I have not done anything wrong," he said. "I will continue to do my best to clear my name."

Mr Takeda has acknowledged he signed off on about £1.5m in payments to a Singapore consulting company, Black Tidings, and its head Ian Tan Tong Han - made just before Tokyo was picked in 2013 by the IOC, beating Istanbul and Madrid.

French investigators have linked Black Tidings to Papa Massata Diack, one of the sons of powerful ex-IOC member Lamine Diack of Senegal. Lamine Diack was known to have huge influence over Olympic voters in Africa.

Mr Takeda has said he was not involved in the decision-making process and had no reason to question what he termed a "regular commercial contact" approved by others at the JOC.

Pressure has been growing on the 71-year-old with the games getting closer and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) wanting to distance itself from another scandal.

A statement released by the IOC said: "The IOC takes note with the greatest respect of the decision taken by Mr Takeda to resign as an IOC member.

"Our respect of this decision is even greater because he took this step to protect the Olympic movement while the presumption of innocence, on which the IOC insists, continues to prevail."

The favourite to replace Mr Takeda is Yasuhiro Yamashita, a judo gold medallist in the 1984 Olympics.

General cost overruns have continued to be an issue for Tokyo which is spending at least £15bn to organise the games - three times more than it said it would when it was selected.