Designed by committee, Toyota's Japan Taxi becomes an expensive Olympic symbol

Paralympian Daniel Romanchuk of the U.S. enters a Toyota Motor Corp.'s JPN Taxi during his tour of Tokyo, Japan March 4, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor's Japan Taxi, born in a government committee and designed to be an all-things-to-all-people cab, has become a high-priced icon of Tokyo's budget-busting 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Launched in 2017, the indigo car is the realisation of a government project to put a taxi on Japan's roads that could carry wheelchair users, luggage-laden travellers and foreign visitors of all sizes.