2020 Summer Olympics

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see 2020 in Japan, 2021 in Japan, 2020 Summer Paralympics, and 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.

Games of the XXXII Olympiad

Location	Tokyo, Japan
Motto	United by Emotion
Nations	205 (+ EOR team)
Athletes	11,090
Events	339 in 33 sports (50 disciplines)
Opening	23 July 2021
Closing	8 August 2021
Opened by	Emperor Naruhito
Cauldron	Naomi Osaka
Stadium	Olympic Stadium
Summer Winter 2020 Summer Paralympics

The 2020 Summer Olympics (Japanese: 2020年夏季オリンピック, Hepburn: Nisen Nijū-nen Kaki Orinpikku), officially the Games of the XXXII Olympiad (第三十二回オリンピック競技大会, Dai Sanjūni-kai Orinpikku Kyōgi Taikai) and branded as Tokyo 2020 (東京2020), is an ongoing international multi-sport event being held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.

Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7 September 2013. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the event was postponed to 2021 in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first such instance in the history of the Olympic Games (previous games had been cancelled but not rescheduled). However, the event retains the Tokyo 2020 name for marketing and branding purposes. It is being held largely behind closed doors with no public spectators permitted due to the declaration of a state of emergency. The Summer Paralympics will be held between 24 August and 5 September 2021, 16 days after the completion of the Olympics.

The 2020 Games are the fourth Olympic Games to be held in Japan, following the Tokyo 1964 (Summer), Sapporo 1972 (Winter), and Nagano 1998 (Winter) games. Tokyo is the first city in Asia to hold the Summer Games twice. The 2020 Games are the second of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, following the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and preceding the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.

The 2020 Games introduced new competitions and re-introduced competitions that once were held but were subsequently removed. New ones include 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX and mixed gender team events in a number of existing sports, as well as the return of madison cycling for men and an introduction of the same event for women. New IOC policies also allow the host organizing committee to add new sports to the Olympic program for just one Games. The disciplines added by the Japanese Olympic Committee are baseball and softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding, the last four of which make their Olympic debuts.

Bermuda, the Philippines, and Qatar won their first-ever Olympic gold medals. San Marino and Turkmenistan won their first-ever Olympic medals.

Bidding process

Further information: Bids for the 2020 Summer Olympics

The three candidate cities were Tokyo, Istanbul, and Madrid. The applicant cities of Baku and Doha were not promoted to candidate status. A bid from Rome was withdrawn.

Host city selection

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to select the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics on 7 September 2013, at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, using an exhaustive ballot system. None of the candidate cities won more than 50% of the votes in the first round; Madrid and Istanbul were tied for second place, so a runoff vote was held to determine which of the two cities would be eliminated. The final vote was a head-to-head contest between Tokyo and Istanbul. Tokyo was selected by 60 votes to 36, gaining at least the 49 votes required for a majority.

2020 Summer Olympics host city election

City	Team	Round 1	Runoff	Round 2
Tokyo	Japan	42	—	60
Istanbul	Turkey	26	49	36
Madrid	Spain	26	45	—

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

See also: COVID-19 cases at the 2020 Summer Olympics, COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, and Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports

Few pedestrians on the Shibuya Crossing during the state of emergency in the middle of Japan's first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, early 2020

In January 2020, concerns were raised about the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on athletes and visitors to the Olympic Games. Tokyo organizers insisted they were monitoring the spread of the disease to minimize its effects on preparations for the Olympics. The IOC stated that in 2020, their Japanese partners and the prime minister Abe Shinzo "made it very clear that Japan could not manage a postponement beyond next summer [2021] at the latest". Unlike the case for Zika virus during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted directly between humans, posing tougher challenges for the organizers to counteract the infectious disease and host a safe and secure event. Also unlike the case for H1N1 "swine flu" during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, COVID-19 has a higher fatality rate, and there was no effective vaccine until December 2020. In a February 2020 interview, Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey argued that London would be able to host the Olympic Games at the former 2012 Olympic venues should the Games need to be moved because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike criticized Bailey's comment as inappropriate. In early 2021, officials in the U.S. state of Florida offered to host the delayed Games in their state, while John Coates, the IOC vice president in charge of the Tokyo Olympics, said the Games would open even if the city and other parts of Japan were under a state of emergency because of COVID-19.

Estimates by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Kyoto University predicted that states of emergency may be required during the Games. The reports published at the Ministry of Health experts' panel also showed new patients increasing to 10,000 if the Games were to allow spectators.

Qualifying event cancellation and postponement

Concerns about the pandemic began to affect qualifying events in early 2020. Some that were due to take place in February were moved to alternative locations to address concerns about travelling to the affected areas, particularly China. For example, the women's basketball qualification was played in Belgrade, Serbia, instead of Foshan, China. The Asia & Oceania boxing qualification tournament, which was originally planned to be held from 3–14 February in Wuhan, China (the location of the original outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic), instead took place in Amman, Jordan, at the beginning of March. The third round of the women's football qualification tournament was also affected, as the group matches formerly scheduled to be held in China were moved to Australia. The European boxing qualification began on 14 March 2020 in London, United Kingdom, but was suspended after two days of competition before being rescheduled for April 2021. It eventually resumed in June 2021 but was moved to Paris, France because of renewed concerns over travel to the United Kingdom. Other qualifying events that were due to take place in March to June 2020 began to be postponed until later in the year and mid-2021 as part of a wider suspension of international sporting competitions in response to the pandemic. A multitude of Olympic sports were affected, including archery, baseball, cycling, handball, judo, rowing, sailing, volleyball, and water polo.

Effect on doping tests

Mandatory doping tests were being severely restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. European anti-doping organizations raised concerns that blood and urine tests could not be performed and that mobilizing the staff necessary to do so before the end of the pandemic would be a health risk. Despite the need for extensive testing to take place in advance of the Games, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) stated that public health and safety were their topmost priorities. The Chinese anti-doping agency temporarily ceased testing on 3 February 2020, with a planned resumption of phased testing towards the end of the month, and the anti-doping organizations in the United States, France, Great Britain, and Germany had reduced their testing activities by the end of March.

Postponement to 2021

The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) released a statement on 2 March 2020, confirming that preparations for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics were "continuing as planned". On 23 March, both Canada and Australia indicated that they would withdraw from the Games if they were not postponed by a year. On the same day, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe stated he would support a proposed postponement, citing that ensuring athlete safety was "paramount," and veteran IOC member and former vice president Dick Pound said that he expected the Games to be postponed.

The IOC and TOCOG released a joint statement on 24 March 2020, announcing that the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics would be rescheduled to a date "beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021". They stated that the Games could "stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times", and that the Olympic flame could become "the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present". Prime Minister Abe stated that IOC president Thomas Bach responded "with 100% agreement" to his proposal to delay the Games. For continuity and marketing purposes, it was agreed that the Games would still be branded as Tokyo 2020 despite the change in schedule.

On 30 March 2020, the IOC and TOCOG announced that they had reached an agreement on the new dates for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which would begin with the opening ceremony on 23 July 2021 and end with the closing ceremony on 8 August 2021. The subsequent Winter Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to begin on 4 February 2022, less than six months later. Shortly before the postponement was confirmed, the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organizers formed a task force named "Here We Go" with the remit to address any issues arising from postponing the Games, such as sponsorship and accommodation. The organizers confirmed that all athletes who had already qualified for Tokyo 2020 would keep their qualification slots.

Calls for cancellation

Health experts expressed concern in April 2020 that the Games might have to be cancelled if the pandemic should persist. In an interview, the then president of TOCOG and former Japanese prime minister, Yoshirō Mori, asserted that the Games would be "scrapped" if they could not go ahead in 2021. On 29 April 2020, Prime Minister Abe stated that the Games "must be held in a way that shows the world has won its battle against the coronavirus pandemic". Thomas Bach acknowledged in an interview on 20 May 2020, that the job of reorganizing the Tokyo Games was "a mammoth task" and also admitted that the event would have to be cancelled altogether if it could not take place in the summer of 2021. However, both Bach and Mori expressed optimism about the Games going ahead.

A member of the Japanese COVID-19 Advisory Committee on the basic action policy co-authored a British Medical Journal editorial, which stated, "holding Tokyo 2020 for domestic political and economic purposes— ignoring scientific and moral imperatives—is contradictory to Japan’s commitment to global health and human security."

On 21 January 2021, multiple sources reported that the Japanese government had "privately concluded" that the Games would have to be cancelled. The government dismissed the claims, stating that the reports were "categorically untrue". The new Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga confirmed on 19 February that the G7 had given unanimous support for the postponed Games to go ahead as scheduled. "President Biden supports Prime Minister Suga's efforts," the White House stated. It was reported in April 2021, just three months before the start of the Games, that there was still the option to cancel the Tokyo Olympics with the country having vaccinated less than 1% of its population, with tens of thousands of volunteers expected to take part and athletes not being required to quarantine after arriving in Japan. Prime Minister Suga dismissed these reports in an April 2021 press conference with President Biden, who continues to support Suga's determination to hold the Games. "We respected the decision to delay the games last summer" and "the President proudly supports U.S. athletes," the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

Public support for the Games in Japan has decreased significantly amid a 2021 surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. Multiple organizations of medical professionals have voiced oppositions to the Games, while an opinion poll in April 2021 saw 40% of participants support the cancellation of the Games, and 33% support a second postponement. In May 2021, 83% of those polled supported the cancellation or postponement of the Games. The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association is calling for the cancellation, stating that hospitals in Tokyo "have their hands full and have almost no spare capacity" in an open letter to the prime minister. At least nine out of 47 elected governors supported the cancellation of the Games. Nearly 37% of Japanese companies surveyed supported the cancellation of the Games, and 32% supported postponement.

Kenji Utsunomiya, who had previously run for Governor of Tokyo, collected more than 351,000 signatures on a petition calling for the organisers to "prioritise life" over the Olympics. Japanese writers Jiro Akagawa and Fuminori Nakamura also called for the Games to be postponed or cancelled.

On 26 May 2021, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which is a local sponsor of the Games, published an editorial calling for Prime Minister Suga to "calmly and objectively assess the situation and decide on the cancellation of the event this summer." On 4 June it was reported that Japanese sponsors have proposed to the organisers for "the Games to be postponed for several months," citing a comment by a corporate sponsor senior executive: "It just makes much, much more sense from our perspective to hold the Games when there are more vaccinated people, the weather is cooler and maybe public opposition is lower."

In July 2021, it was announced that all events in Tokyo are to be held behind closed doors with no spectators due to a new state of emergency. A poll by the Asahi Shimbun found that 55% of those surveyed supported the cancellation of the Olympics, and 68% felt that organisers would not be able to suitably control COVID-19 at the Games. The decision was also detrimental to local sponsors, which had planned in-person presences to promote their products during the Games; an executive of official sponsor Toyota stated that the company had pulled a television advertising campaign it had planned for the Games in Japan, citing that the Olympics were "becoming an event that has not gained the public’s understanding."

Had the games been cancelled, it would have been the first time since World War II that an Olympic event had been called off and the first games to be scrapped due to a circumstance that didn't have to do with war. A complete cancellation would have also cost Japan ¥4.52 trillion (US$41.5 billion), based on operating expenses and loss of tourism activity.

Costs and insurance

According to an estimate conducted by professor emeritus Katsuhiro Miyamoto of Kansai University and reported by the NHK, the cost of delaying the 2020 Olympics by one year will be 640.8 billion yen (US$5.8 billion), taking maintenance expenditures for the unused facilities into account.

The Tokyo Games are protected through the commercial insurance marketplace Lloyd's of London, by global reinsurers Munich Re and Swiss Re. The IOC takes out around $800 million of insurance for each Summer Olympics, with the total amount of loss insured for the 2020 Games likely to be more than $2 billion. The disruption caused by postponing the Games was covered by the insurance policy; those likely to make claims for their financial losses include local organizers, sponsors, hospitality firms, and travel providers. The total loss amount will not become clear until the Games have actually taken place.

Holders of tickets purchased from overseas prior to postponement will be entitled to refunds for both Olympic and Paralympic ticket purchases except for costs for cancelled hotel bookings. Although about 600,000 Olympic tickets and 300,000 Paralympic tickets will need to be refunded, organisers said that they would not release the costs for refunds. Reuters quoted industry sources who estimated that the Tokyo Olympics Committee had taken out US$500–800 million in insurance and that after accounting for costs such as rebooking sporting venues and the Olympic Village, little of that payout would be available to recoup the proceeds of lost and refunded ticket sales. The local organizers are responsible for ticket sales and use them to defray the costs of holding the games; ticket sales were expected to bring in approximately US$800 million, but actual sales will be close to zero.

Development and preparation

The Olympic rings on display at Tokyo Bay to promote the Games

The Tokyo Organizing Committee was originally headed by former Japanese prime minister Yoshirō Mori, but he resigned in February 2021 due to backlash from sexist comments about women in meetings. Seiko Hashimoto was chosen to succeed him. Tamayo Marukawa, Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, was responsible for overseeing the preparations on behalf of the Japanese government.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government set aside a fund of ¥400 billion (more than US$3.67 billion) to cover the cost of hosting the Games. The Japanese government was considering easing airspace restrictions to allow an increased slot capacity at both Haneda and Narita airports. A new railway line was planned to link both airports through an expansion of Tokyo Station, cutting travel time from Tokyo Station to Haneda from 30 minutes to 18 minutes, and from Tokyo Station to Narita from 55 minutes to 36 minutes; funded primarily by private investors, the line would cost ¥400 billion. The East Japan Railway Company (JR East) was also planning a new route near Tamachi to Haneda Airport.

There were plans to fund the accelerated completion of the Central Circular Route, Tokyo Gaikan Expressway, and Ken-Ō Expressway, and the refurbishment of other major expressways in the area. The Yurikamome automated transit line was also to be extended from its existing terminal at Toyosu Station to a new terminal at Kachidoki Station, passing the site of the Olympic Village, although the line was not expected to have adequate capacity to serve major events in the Odaiba area on its own.

In April 2018, the Tokyo Organizing Committee signed a partnership with the International Labour Organization to ensure decent work in the preparation of and during the 2020 Olympic Games.

In June 2020, the chief executive of the Organizing Committee, Toshirō Mutō, stated that the committee was exploring options for streamlining the Games to achieve cost savings. On 25 September, the IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee agreed to a suite of measures to simplify the Games' logistics, including a cut to non-athlete staff, use of online meetings, and streamlined transport, among others. The committee also outlined areas it would be exploring in order to maintain the health and safety of all participants.

Venues and infrastructure

The newly built Japan National Stadium in Tokyo is the venue for the ceremonies and the athletics events.

Main article: Venues of the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics

In February 2012, it was announced that former Tokyo's National Stadium, the central venue for the 1964 Summer Olympics, would undergo a ¥100 billion renovation for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics. In November 2012, the Japan Sport Council announced it was taking bids for proposed stadium designs. Of the 46 finalists, Zaha Hadid Architects was awarded the project, which would replace the old stadium with a new 80,000-seat stadium. There was criticism of the Zaha Hadid design—which was compared to a bicycle helmet and regarded as clashing with the surrounding Meiji Shrine—and widespread disapproval of the costs, even with attempts to revise and "optimize" the design.

In June 2015, the government announced it was planning to reduce the new stadium's permanent capacity to 65,000 in its athletics configuration (although with the option to add up to 15,000 temporary seats for football) as a further cost-saving measure. The original plans to build a retractable roof were also scrapped. As a result of public opposition to the increasing costs of the stadium, which reached ¥252 billion, the government ultimately chose to reject Zaha Hadid's design entirely and selected a new design by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Inspired by traditional temples and with a lower profile, Kuma's design has a budget of ¥149 billion. Changes in plans prevented the new stadium from being completed in time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup as originally intended. The National Stadium, which was inaugurated on 21 December 2019, will be named the Olympic Stadium during the Tokyo Games.

In October 2018, the Board of Audit issued a report stating that the total cost of the venues could exceed US$25 billion.

Of the 33 competition venues in Tokyo, 28 are within 8 kilometers (5 miles) of the Olympic Village, with eleven new venues to be constructed. On 16 October 2019, the IOC announced that there were plans to re-locate the marathon and racewalking events to Sapporo for heat concerns. The plans were made official on 1 November 2019 after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike accepted the IOC's decision, despite her belief that the events should have remained in Tokyo.

Security

Police patrolling and watching from a rooftop near the tennis venue

In December 2018, the Japanese government chose to ban drones from flying over venues being used for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. A similar ban was also imposed for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which Japan also hosted.

Volunteers

Applications for volunteering at the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games were accepted beginning on 26 September 2018. By 18 January 2019, a total of 204,680 applications had been received by the Tokyo Organizing Committee. Interviews to select the requisite number of volunteers began in February 2019, with training scheduled to take place in October 2019. The volunteers at the venues are to be known as "Field Cast", and the volunteers in the city are to be known as "City Cast". These names were chosen from a shortlist of four from an original 150 pairs of names; the other three shortlisted names were "Shining Blue" and "Shining Blue Tokyo", "Games Anchor" and "City Anchor", and "Games Force" and "City Force". The names were chosen by the people who had applied to be volunteers at the Games.

As of early June 2021, approximately 10,000 out of the 80,000 registered volunteers resigned from the Games. Media attributed the rise in pandemic cases as the reason for massive quitting. More volunteer assignments are expected to be cancelled due to the spectator ban.

Medals

File:The-Olympic-Medals Tokyo2020 02.jpg

Medals of the 2020 Olympic Games

In February 2017, the Tokyo Organizing Committee announced an electronics recycling program in partnership with Japan Environmental Sanitation Center and NTT Docomo, soliciting donations of electronics such as mobile phones to be reclaimed as materials for the medals. Aiming to collect eight tonnes of metals to produce the medals for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, collection boxes were deployed at public locations and NTT Docomo retail shops in April 2017. A design competition for the medals was launched in December of that year.

In May 2018, the organizing committee reported that they had obtained half the required 2,700 kilograms of bronze but were struggling to obtain the required amount of silver; although bronze and silver medals purely utilize their respective materials, IOC requirements mandate that gold medals utilize silver as a base. The collection of bronze was completed in November 2018, with the remainder estimated to have been completed by March 2019.

On 24 July 2019 (one year ahead of the originally scheduled opening ceremony), the designs of the medals were unveiled. The medals for the Olympic and Paralympic Games were designed by Junichi Kawanishi following a nationwide competition. A new feature shared with the Paralympic medals is that the ribbons contain one, two, or three silicone convex lines to distinguish gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively.

Due to COVID-19 protocols, athletes will be presented with their medals on trays and asked to put them on themselves, rather than have them placed around their necks by a dignitary.

Torch relay

Main article: 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay

The slogan of the 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay is "Hope Lights Our Way".

As determined by a 2009 IOC ruling that banned international torch relays for any future Olympic Games, the 2020 Summer Olympics torch was scheduled to only visit the two countries of Greece and the host nation Japan. The first phase of the relay began on 12 March 2020, with the traditional flame lighting ceremony at the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. The torch then travelled to Athens, where the Greek leg of the relay culminated in a handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium on 19 March, during which the torch was transferred to the Japanese contingent. The flame was placed inside a special lantern and transported from Athens International Airport on a chartered flight to Higashimatsushima in Japan. The torch was then expected to begin the second phase of its journey on 20 March, as it traveled for one week around the three most affected areas of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami—Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima—where it would go on display under the heading "Flame of Recovery". After leaving Naraha on 26 March, the torch would commence its main relay around Japan, incorporating all 47 prefectural capitals.

After the decision to postpone the Games was made, the torch was placed again in a special lantern on display in the city of Fukushima for a month. After that, the lantern was transferred to the Tokyo prefecture, where it was kept safe until the restart of the relay in 2021. On 23 July 2020 (one year ahead of the rescheduled opening ceremony), a promotional video was released featuring Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee carrying the lantern inside Japan National Stadium, drawing comparisons between emergence from the pandemic and her own return to sport after being diagnosed with leukemia. On 20 August 2020, it was announced that the torch relay would begin again in Naraha, Fukushima on 25 March 2021, nearly a year later than originally planned.

The relay ended at Tokyo's National Stadium on 23 July, with tennis player Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic cauldron at the finale of the opening ceremony.

Biosecurity protocols

Temperature check and COVID-19 countermeasures at the tennis venue

In February 2021, the IOC began releasing "playbooks" containing details on planned COVID-19 biosecurity protocols for athletes, officials, the press, and other staff, including standard protocols such as practicing social distancing, hygiene, the wearing of face masks (outside of training and competition for athletes), and being restricted from visiting bars, restaurants, shops, and other tourist areas around Greater Tokyo Area, or using public transport unless otherwise permitted. Participants will be asked to use Japan's COCOA Exposure Notification app and will be tested at least every four days. Athletes who test positive will be unable to compete and may be quarantined at a government facility (although leeway will be given in the event of false positives). Close contacts must also test negative in order to be cleared for competition. As the actions could spread infected droplets, athletes will be discouraged from "excessive" celebrations. The playbooks were criticized in a paper published by The New England Journal of Medicine in May 2021, for lacking "scientifically rigorous risk assessment" and failing to "distinguish the various levels of risk faced by athletes". The playbook states the athletes must arrive up to five days prior to the start of the competition and have to leave within 48 hours once they have been eliminated from the sport or competitions have been concluded.

The IOC is recommending the vaccination of athletes if they are available, but vaccines will not be required, and the IOC is recommending against athletes "jumping the queue" in order to obtain priority over essential populations. On 12 March 2021, Thomas Bach announced that in nations where they are approved for use, the Chinese Olympic Committee had offered to cover the costs of the Chinese CoronaVac and Sinopharm vaccines for athletes competing in the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 Winter Olympics, and purchase two doses for their nation's general public for each vaccinated athlete. On 6 May 2021, Pfizer announced that it would donate doses of its vaccine to NOCs competing in Tokyo.

Approximately 93,000 athletes and officials are exempt from the quarantine rules upon arriving in Japan, provided that they remain in areas separated from the local population. With around 300,000 local staff and volunteers entering and exiting these bubbles, and 20,000 vaccine doses allocated for this group, it has led to concerns of COVID-19 spreading both during the Games and when teams return to their countries.

Due to international travel restrictions, the organizing committee announced that no international guests (including spectators) would be allowed to attend the Games. As per existing guidance for spectator sports in Japan, spectators would be asked to refrain from cheering or shouting. On 19 June 2021, Governor Koike announced that plans for public viewing events for the Games had been scrapped, in order to use the planned venues (such as Yoyogi Park) as mass vaccination sites instead. On 21 June, it was announced that all venues would be capped at a maximum of 10,000 ticketed spectators or 50% capacity, whichever is lower.

On 2 July 2021, the new TOCOG president Seiko Hashimoto warned that there was still a possibility of the Games being held behind closed doors because of rising COVID-19 cases in the country. Japan's slow vaccination rate had been of particular concern. A simulation run by the University of Tokyo in May 2021 projected that a new wave of infections could peak in mid-October if the Games went on after the existing state of emergency in Tokyo had expired.

On 8 July 2021, after Tokyo recorded 920 new COVID-19 cases (its highest increase since May), Prime Minister Suga declared a new state of emergency in the Tokyo area from 12 July through 22 August (ending only two days before the Paralympics' opening ceremony), and announced that all events at venues in the area will therefore be held behind closed doors with no spectators permitted. Hashimoto stated that "it is extremely regrettable that the Games will be staged in a very limited manner in the face of the spread of novel coronavirus infections." President of the IOC Thomas Bach stated that "we will support any measure which is necessary to have a safe and secure Olympic and Paralympic Games for the Japanese people and all the participants."

The announcement stated that spectators will still be allowed at events being held outside of Tokyo, subject to the approval by local health authorities and the aforementioned 50%/10,000-spectator limit. The prefectures of Fukushima and Hokkaido stated that they will prohibit spectators at events held in the areas. The opening ceremony is expected to be limited to fewer than 1,000 VIP guests, including IOC representatives and dignitaries. On 16 July, it was reported that Bach had asked Prime Minister Suga about the possibility that restrictions on spectators could be eased later on if COVID-19 conditions improve in Tokyo.

Ticketing

The opening ceremony tickets were expected to range from ¥12,000 to ¥300,000, with a maximum price of ¥130,000 for the finals of the athletics track and field events. The average ticket price is ¥7,700, with half the tickets being sold for up to ¥8,000. A symbolic ticket price of ¥2,020 is expected for families, groups resident in Japan, and in conjunction with a school program. Tickets will be sold through 40,000 shops in Japan and by mail order to Japanese addresses through the Internet. International guests, had they been allowed, would have needed to visit Japan during the sales period, or arrange to buy tickets through a third party such as a travel agent.

Tickets went on general sale in Japan in the autumn of 2019 and were expected to be sold globally from June 2020; however, this plan was suspended when the Games were postponed on 24 March 2020. The Tokyo Organizing Committee confirmed that tickets already purchased would remain valid for the same sessions according to the new schedule and that refunds were also being offered.

On 20 March 2021, it was announced that due to COVID-19-related concerns, no international guests would be allowed to attend the 2020 Olympics or Paralympics. This includes both spectators, as well as the friends and family of athletes. All overseas ticketholders will be refunded. Hashimoto cited uncertainties surrounding international travel restrictions, and goals to preserve the safety of all participants and spectators, and not place a burden on the health care system. It was ultimately announced in July that no spectators will be allowed at any events held in Tokyo, Fukushima and Hokkaido.

Cultural festival

A cultural programme known as Nippon Festival was scheduled to coincide with the Olympics and Paralympics, running from April to September 2021 as a series of streaming events held by the Tokyo Organizing Committee and other partners. The events are reflecting the themes of "Participation and Interaction", "Towards the Realisation of an Inclusive Society" and "Reconstruction of the Tohoku Region". The programme was downsized and reformatted due to COVID-19 and the postponement of the Games. One of these events was a concert held on 18 July, which featured J-rock band Wanima, choreography by dancers Aio Yamada and Tuki Takamura, and the presentation of animated "creatures" based on illustrations "embodying the thoughts and emotions of people from across the world".

The original plans for Nippon Festival included events such as Kabuki x Opera (a concert that would have featured stage actor Ichikawa Ebizō XI, opera singers Anna Pirozzi and Erwin Schrott, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra), an arts and culture festival focusing on disabilities, and a special two-day exhibition sumo tournament at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan shortly after the Olympics—which would have differed significantly from the traditional bi-monthly Honbasho tournaments, and featured special commentary in English and Japanese to help explain to spectators the customs and traditions of professional sumo, which are deeply rooted in the Shinto religion.

The Games

Opening ceremony

A scene from the Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, with drones flying around and creating the official logo of the Games

Main article: 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on 23 July 2021 in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. It included the traditional Parade of Nations. Emperor Naruhito formally opened the Games, and at the end of the torch relay the Olympic cauldron was lit by Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka.

Sports

See also: Olympic sports

Nippon Budokan

Ariake Arena

Ariake Gymnastics Centre

Tokyo Aquatics Centre

Yoyogi Gymnasium

Saitama Super Arena

Ryogoku Kokugikan

Enoshima Yacht Harbor, Kanagawa

Tsurigasaki Beach, Chiba

The official program for the 2020 Summer Olympics was approved by the IOC executive board on 9 June 2017. IOC president Thomas Bach stated that the goal for the Tokyo Summer Olympics was to give them a more "youthful" and "urban" appeal, and to increase the number of female participants.

The Games will feature 339 events in 33 different sports, encompassing a total of 50 disciplines. Alongside the five new sports that are expected to be introduced in Tokyo, fifteen new events within existing sports are also planned, including 3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and the return of madison cycling, as well as new mixed events in several sports.

In the list below, the number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.

2020 Summer Olympic Sports Programme

Aquatics  Artistic swimming (2)  Diving (8)  Marathon swimming (2)  Swimming (35)  Water polo (2)  Archery (5)  Athletics (48)  Badminton (5) Baseball  Baseball (1)  Softball (1)  Basketball Basketball (2) 3×3 basketball (2)  Boxing (13)  Canoeing Slalom (4) Sprint (12)  Cycling BMX freestyle (2) BMX racing (2) Mountain biking (2) Road cycling (4) Track cycling (12)  Equestrian Dressage (2) Eventing (2) Jumping (2)  Fencing (12)  Field hockey (2)  Football (2)  Golf (2)  Gymnastics Artistic (14) Rhythmic (2) Trampoline (2)  Handball (2)  Judo (15)  Karate Kata (2) Kumite (6)  Modern pentathlon (2)  Rowing (14)  Rugby sevens (2)  Sailing (10)  Shooting (15)  Skateboarding (4)  Sport climbing (2)  Surfing (2)  Table tennis (5)  Taekwondo (8)  Tennis (5)  Triathlon (3)  Volleyball Volleyball (2) Beach volleyball (2)  Weightlifting (14)  Wrestling Freestyle (12) Greco-Roman (6)

New sports

On 12 February 2013, with a remit to control the cost of the Games and ensure they are "relevant to sports fans of all generations", the IOC Executive Board recommended the removal of one of the 26 sports contested at the 2012 Summer Olympics, leaving a vacancy which the IOC would seek to fill at the 125th IOC Session. Five sports were shortlisted for removal, including canoe, field hockey, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, and wrestling. In the final round of voting by the Executive Board, eight members voted to remove wrestling from the Olympic programme. Hockey and taekwondo were both tied in second with three votes each.

The decision to drop wrestling surprised many media outlets, given that the sport's role in the Olympics dates back to the ancient Olympic Games, and was included in the original programme for the modern Games. The New York Times felt that the decision was based on the shortage of well-known talent and the absence of women's events in the sport. Out of the shortlist from the IOC vote, Wrestling was duly added to the shortlist of applicants for inclusion in the 2020 Games, alongside the seven new sports that were put forward for consideration.

On 29 May 2013, it was announced that three of the eight sports under consideration had made the final shortlist: baseball/softball, squash and wrestling. The other five sports were rejected at this point: karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding, and wushu. At the 125th IOC Session on 8 September 2013, wrestling was chosen to be included in the Olympic programme for 2020 and 2024. Wrestling secured 49 votes, while baseball/softball and squash received 24 votes and 22 votes respectively.

With the adoption of the Olympic Agenda 2020 in December 2014, the IOC shifted from a "sport-based" approach to the Olympic programme to an "event-based" programme—providing additional flexibility for the host organizing committee to propose the addition of sports to the programme to improve local interest. As a result of these changes, a shortlist of eight new proposed sports was unveiled on 22 June 2015, consisting of baseball/softball, bowling, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, surfing, and wushu. On 28 September 2015, the Tokyo Organizing Committee submitted their shortlist of five proposed sports to the IOC: baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding. These five new sports were approved on 3 August 2016 by the IOC during the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and are to be included in the sports program for 2020 only, bringing the total number of sports at the 2020 Olympics to 33.

Test events

A total of 56 test events were scheduled to take place in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. Two of the events were held in late 2018, but the main test event schedule commenced in June 2019 and was originally due to be completed in May 2020 prior to the start of the Olympics. Several of the events were incorporated into pre-existing championships, but some have been newly created specifically to serve as Olympic test events for the 2020 Summer Games.

In February 2019, it was announced that the test events would be branded under the banner "Ready, Steady, Tokyo". The Tokyo Organizing Committee is responsible for 22 of the test events, with the remaining events being arranged by national and international sports federations. The first test event was World Sailing's World Cup Series, held at Enoshima in September 2018. The last scheduled event is the Tokyo Challenge Track Meet, which was originally due to take place at the Olympic Stadium on 6 May 2020.

All test events originally scheduled to take place from 12 March 2020 onwards were postponed due to COVID-19, with the test event calendar to be reviewed during the preparations for the rescheduled Games.

Participating national Olympic committee teams

See also: 2020 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations

The Republic of Macedonia has competed under the provisional name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" in every Summer and Winter Games since its debut in 1996 because of the disputed status of its official name. The naming disputes with Greece ended in 2018 with the signing of the Prespa agreement, and the country was officially renamed North Macedonia in February 2019. The new name was immediately recognized by the IOC, although the Olympic Committee of North Macedonia (NMOC) was not officially adopted until February 2020. The NMOC sent a delegation to the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in January 2020, but the Tokyo Games are North Macedonia's first appearance at the Summer Olympics under its new name. Since competing as Swaziland ten times at the Summer and Winter Olympics, Eswatini made its debut under that name after the renaming of the country by the king in 2018.

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from all international sport for a period of four years, after the Russian government was found to have tampered with lab data that it provided to WADA in January 2019 as a condition of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency being reinstated. As a result of the ban, WADA plans to allow individually cleared Russian athletes to take part in the 2020 Summer Olympics under a neutral banner, as instigated at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but they will not be permitted to compete in team sports. WADA Compliance Review Committee head Jonathan Taylor stated that the IOC would not be able to use "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR) as it did in 2018, emphasizing that neutral athletes cannot be portrayed as representing a specific country. Russia later filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the WADA decision. After reviewing the case on appeal, CAS ruled on 17 December 2020 to reduce the penalty that WADA had placed on Russia. Instead of banning Russia from sporting events, the ruling allowed Russia to participate at the Olympics and other international events, but for a period of two years, the team cannot use the Russian name, flag, or anthem and must present themselves as "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team". The ruling does allow for team uniforms to display "Russia" on the uniform as well as the use of the Russian flag colors within the uniform's design, although the name should be up to equal predominance as the "Neutral Athlete/Team" designation.

On 19 February 2021, it was announced that Russia would compete under the acronym "ROC" after the name of the Russian Olympic Committee although the name of the committee itself in full could not be used to refer to the delegation. The ROC team would be represented by the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee.

On 6 April 2021, North Korea announced it would not participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics due to COVID-19 concerns. This will mark North Korea's first absence in the Summer Olympics since 1988. On 21 July 2021, Guinea announced it would not participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics allegedly due to COVID-19 concerns, though media outlets suggested that financial considerations may have been the real motivating factor. Guinea later reversed the decision and announced it would participate.

Country by team size

The following 205 national Olympic committee teams and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team have qualified (including the 104 universality places guaranteed in athletics, under which all 206 NOCs may send competitors regardless of qualification).

Participating national Olympic committee teams

Afghanistan (5)  Albania (9)  Algeria (41)  American Samoa (6)  Andorra (2)  Angola (20)  Antigua and Barbuda (6)  Argentina (174)  Armenia (17)  Aruba (3)  Australia (477)  Austria (75)  Azerbaijan (44)  Bahamas (16)  Bahrain (32)  Bangladesh (6)  Barbados (8)  Belarus (101)  Belgium (121)  Belize (3)  Benin (7)  Bermuda (2)  Bhutan (4)  Bolivia (5)  Bosnia and Herzegovina (7)  Botswana (13)  Brazil (302)  British Virgin Islands (3)  Brunei (2)  Bulgaria (42)  Burkina Faso (7)  Burundi (6)  Cambodia (3)  Cameroon (12)  Canada (381)  Cape Verde (6)  Cayman Islands (5)  Central African Republic (2)  Chad (3)  Chile (58)  China (406)  Colombia (70)  Comoros (3)  Cook Islands (6)  Costa Rica (14)  Croatia (59)  Cuba (70)  Cyprus (15)  Czech Republic (115)  Democratic Republic of the Congo (7)  Denmark (107)  Djibouti (4)  Dominica (2)  Dominican Republic (63)  East Timor (3)  Ecuador (48)  Egypt (132)  El Salvador (5)  Equatorial Guinea (3)  Eritrea (13)  Estonia (33)  Eswatini (4)  Ethiopia (38)  Federated States of Micronesia (3)  Fiji (30)  Finland (45)  France (385)  Gabon (5)  The Gambia (4)  Georgia (35)  Germany (425)  Ghana (14)  Great Britain (376)  Greece (83)  Grenada (6)  Guam (5)  Guatemala (24)  Guinea (5)  Guinea-Bissau (4)  Guyana (7)  Haiti (6)  Honduras (27)  Hong Kong (42)  Hungary (166)  Iceland (4)  India (122)  Indonesia (28)  Iran (65)  Iraq (4)  Ireland (116)  Israel (90)  Italy (372)  Ivory Coast (28)  Jamaica (50)  Japan (552) (host)  Jordan (14)  Kazakhstan (93)  Kenya (85)  Kiribati (3)  Kosovo (11)  Kuwait (11)  Kyrgyzstan (17)  Laos (4)  Latvia (33)  Lebanon (6)  Lesotho (2)  Liberia (3)  Libya (4)  Liechtenstein (5)  Lithuania (41)  Luxembourg (12)  Madagascar (6)  Malawi (5)  Malaysia (30)  Maldives (4)  Mali (4)  Malta (6)  Marshall Islands (2)  Mauritania (2)  Mauritius (8)  Mexico (164)  Moldova (20)  Monaco (6)  Mongolia (43)  Montenegro (33)  Morocco (48)  Mozambique (10)  Myanmar (2)  Namibia (11)  Nauru (2)  Nepal (5)  Netherlands (278)  New Zealand (213)  Nicaragua (8)  Niger (7)  Nigeria (58)  North Macedonia (8)  Norway (85)  Oman (5)  Pakistan (10)  Palau (3)  Palestine (5)  Panama (10)  Papua New Guinea (8)  Paraguay (8)  Peru (35)  Philippines (19)  Poland (210)  Portugal (92)  Puerto Rico (37)  Qatar (16)  Refugee Olympic Team (29)  Republic of the Congo (3)  ROC (333)‍  Romania (101)  Rwanda (6)  Saint Kitts and Nevis (2)  Saint Lucia (5)  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (3)  Samoa (8)  San Marino (5)  São Tomé and Príncipe (3)  Saudi Arabia (29)  Senegal (9)  Serbia (87)  Seychelles (5)  Sierra Leone (4)  Singapore (23)  Slovakia (41)  Slovenia (53)  Solomon Islands (3)  Somalia (2)  South Africa (177)  South Korea (237)  South Sudan (2)  Spain (321)  Sri Lanka (9)  Sudan (5)  Suriname (3)  Sweden (134)  Switzerland (107)  Syria (6)  Chinese Taipei (68)  Tajikistan (11)  Tanzania (3)  Thailand (41)  Togo (4)  Tonga (6)  Trinidad and Tobago (23)  Tunisia (63)  Turkey (108)  Turkmenistan (9)  Tuvalu (2)  Uganda (25)  Ukraine (155)  United Arab Emirates (5)  United States (613)  Uruguay (11)  Uzbekistan (64)  Vanuatu (3)  Venezuela (44)  Vietnam (18)  Virgin Islands (4)  Yemen (5)  Zambia (26)  Zimbabwe (5)

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committee

11,656 athletes from 206 NOCs:

Ranking	NOC	Athletes
1	United States	613
2	Japan (Host)	552
3	Australia	478
4	Germany	425
5	China	406
6	France	398
7	Canada	381
8	Great Britain	376
9	Italy	372
10	ROC	328
11	Spain	321
12	Brazil	301
13	Netherlands	278
14	South Korea	236
15	New Zealand	211
16	Poland	210
17	South Africa	177
18	Argentina	174
19	Hungary	166
20	Mexico	164
21	Ukraine	155
22	Sweden	134
23	Egypt	133
24	Belgium	121
25	India	120
26	Ireland	116
27	Czech Republic	115
28	Turkey	108
29	Switzerland	107
30	Denmark	107
31	Romania	101
32	Belarus	101
33	Kazakhstan	93
34	Portugal	92
35	Israel	90
36	Serbia	86
37	Kenya	85
38	Greece	83
39	Norway	75
40	Colombia	70
41	Cuba	70
42	Chinese Taipei	68
43	Iran	66
44	Uzbekistan	65
45	Dominican Republic	62
46	Tunisia	62
47	Austria	60
48	Nigeria	60
49	Croatia	59
50	Chile	58
51	Slovenia	53
52	Jamaica	50
53	Morocco	50
54	Ecuador	48
55	Finland	45
56	Algeria	44
57	Venezuela	44
58	Azerbaijan	44
59	Mongolia	43
60	Hong Kong	42
61	Thailand	42
62	Bulgaria	42
63	Lithuania	41
64	Slovakia	41
65	Ethiopia	38
66	Puerto Rico	37
67	Georgia	35
68	Peru	35
69	Montenegro	34
70	Latvia	33
71	Estonia	33
72	Bahrain	32
73	Fiji	30
74	Malaysia	30
75	Refugee Olympic Team	29
76	Saudi Arabia	29
77	Indonesia	28
78	Ivory Coast	28
79	Zambia	26
80	Uganda	25
81	Guatemala	24
82	Singapore	23
83	Honduras	22
84	Trinidad and Tobago	22
85	Angola	20
86	Moldova	20
87	Philippines	19
88	Vietnam	18
89	Armenia	17
90	Bahamas	16
91	Kyrgyzstan	16
92	Qatar	16
93	Cyprus	15
94	Costa Rica	14
95	Ghana	14
96	Jordan	14
97	Botswana	13
98	Eritrea	13
99	Cameroon	12
100	Luxembourg	12
101	Kosovo	11
102	Kuwait	11
103	Namibia	11
104	Tajikistan	11
105	Uruguay	11
106	Mozambique	10
107	Pakistan	10
108	Panama	10
109	Albania	9
110	Senegal	9
111	Sri Lanka	9
112	Turkmenistan	9
113	Barbados	8
114	Mauritius	8
115	Nicaragua	8
116	North Macedonia	8
117	Papua New Guinea	8
118	Paraguay	8
119	Samoa	8
120	Benin	7
121	Bosnia and Herzegovina	7
122	Burkina Faso	7
123	Democratic Republic of the Congo	7
124	Guyana	7
125	Niger	7
126	American Samoa	6
127	Antigua and Barbuda	6
128	Bangladesh	6
129	Burundi	6
130	Cape Verde	6
131	Cook Islands	6
132	Grenada	6
133	Haiti	6
134	Lebanon	6
135	Madagascar	6
136	Malta	6
137	Monaco	6
138	Rwanda	6
139	Syria	6
140	Tonga	6
141	Afghanistan	5
142	Bolivia	5
143	Cayman Islands	5
144	El Salvador	5
145	Gabon	5
146	Guam	5
147	Guinea	5
148	Liechtenstein	5
149	Malawi	5
150	Nepal	5
151	Oman	5
152	Palestine	5
153	Saint Lucia	5
154	San Marino	5
155	Seychelles	5
156	Sudan	5
157	United Arab Emirates	5
158	Yemen	5
159	Zimbabwe	5
160	Bhutan	4
161	Djibouti	4
162	Eswatini	4
163	The Gambia	4
164	Guinea-Bissau	4
165	Iceland	4
166	Iraq	4
167	Laos	4
168	Libya	4
169	Maldives	4
170	Mali	4
171	Sierra Leone	4
172	Togo	4
173	Virgin Islands	4
174	Aruba	3
175	Belize	3
176	British Virgin Islands	3
177	Cambodia	3
178	Chad	3
179	Comoros	3
180	East Timor	3
181	Equatorial Guinea	3
182	Federated States of Micronesia	3
183	Kiribati	3
184	Liberia	3
185	Myanmar	3
186	Palau	3
187	Republic of the Congo	3
188	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	3
189	São Tomé and Príncipe	3
190	Solomon Islands	3
191	Suriname	3
192	Tanzania	3
193	Vanuatu	3
194	Andorra	2
195	Bermuda	2
196	Brunei	2
197	Central African Republic	2
198	Dominica	2
199	Lesotho	2
200	Marshall Islands	2
201	Mauritania	2
202	Nauru	2
203	Somalia	2
204	Saint Kitts and Nevis	2
205	South Sudan	2
206	Tuvalu	2
Total		11,326

Medal summary

See also: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table

  *   Host nation (Japan)

2020 Summer Olympics medal table

Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	39	41	33	113
2	China	38	32	19	89
3	Japan*	27	14	17	58
4	Great Britain	22	20	22	64
5	ROC	20	28	23	71
6	Australia	17	7	22	46
7	Netherlands	10	12	14	36
8	France	10	12	11	33
9	Germany	10	11	16	37
10	Italy	10	10	20	40
11–93	Remaining	137	151	205	493
Totals (93 entries)		340	338	402	1,080

Podium sweeps

Date	Sport	Event	Team	Gold	Silver	Bronze
27 July	Cycling	Women's cross-country mountain biking	Switzerland	Jolanda Neff	Sina Frei	Linda Indergand
31 July	Athletics	Women's 100 metres	Jamaica	Elaine Thompson Herah	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce	Shericka Jackson

Calendar

See also: Chronological summary of the 2020 Summer Olympics

Event scheduling

Per the historical precedent of swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, swimming finals are scheduled to be held in the morning to allow live primetime broadcasts in the Americas. NBC paid substantial fees for rights to the Olympics, so the IOC has allowed NBC to influence event scheduling to maximize U.S. television ratings when possible. On 7 May 2014, NBC agreed to a US$7.75 billion contract extension to air the Olympics through the 2032 games, which is one of the IOC's major sources of revenue. Japanese broadcasters were said to have criticized the decision, as swimming is one of the most popular Olympic events in the country.

Marketing

Main article: 2020 Summer Olympics marketing

Miraitowa (left), the official mascot of the 2020 Summer Olympics, and Someity (right), the official mascot of the 2020 Summer Paralympics

The official emblems for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 25 April 2016; designed by Asao Tokolo, who won a nationwide design contest, it takes the form of a ring in an indigo-colored checkerboard pattern. The design is meant to "express a refined elegance and sophistication that exemplifies Japan". The checkered design resembles a pattern called ichimatsu moyo that was popular during the Edo period in Japan from 1603 to 1867. The designs replaced a previous emblem which had been scrapped after allegations that it plagiarized the logo of the Théâtre de Liège in Belgium. The Games' bid slogan is Discover Tomorrow (Japanese: 未来（あした）をつかもう, romanized: Ashita o tsukamō). While ashita literally means 'tomorrow', it is intentionally spelled as mirai 'future'. The official slogan United by Emotion was unveiled on 17 February 2020. The slogan will be used solely in English.

The official mascot of the 2020 Summer Olympics is Miraitowa, a figure with blue-checkered ichimatsu moyo patterns inspired by the Games' official emblem. Its fictional characteristics include the ability to teleport. Created by Japanese artist Ryo Taniguchi, the mascots were selected from a competition process which took place in late 2017 and early 2018. A total of 2,042 candidate designs were submitted to the Tokyo Organizing Committee, which selected three pairs of unnamed mascot designs to present to Japanese elementary school students for the final decision. The results of the selection were announced on 28 February 2018, and the mascots were named on 22 July 2018. Miraitowa is named after the Japanese words for "future" and "eternity", and Someity is named after someiyoshino, a type of cherry blossom. Someity's name also refers to the English phrase "so mighty". The mascots are expected to help finance the Tokyo Games through merchandizing and licensing deals.

Victory ceremonies

Naoki Satō composed the music for victory ceremonies at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Colors

Alongside the main Emblem blue, the five other colors used in the branding of the 2020 Games are   Kurenai red,   Ai blue,   Sakura pink,   Fuji purple, and   Matsuba green. These five traditional colors of Japan are used as sub-colors to create points of difference in the color variations.

Concerns and controversies

Main article: Concerns and controversies at the 2020 Summer Olympics

South Korea asked the IOC to ban the Japanese Rising Sun Flag from the 2020 Summer Olympics, because South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism claims the flag is a symbol of Japan's imperialist past and recalls "historic scars and pain" for people of Korea just as the swastika "reminds Europeans of the nightmare of World War II". Use of the flag in international sporting events such as the Olympic Games is quite controversial, as it was used for waging aggressive war against many countries in Pacific regions including the Attack on Pearl Harbor. However, the flag has been utilized since before World War II and it is still used by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and a variant by the Japan Self-Defense Forces. South Korea did not formally raise objections against the flag until 2011. According to the Associated Press, the IOC issued a statement in response to South Korea's request, saying, "sports stadiums should be free of any political demonstration. When concerns arise at games time we look at them on a case by case basis." Meanwhile, the South Korean team put up a provocative banner on the balcony of the Olympic village, reminiscent of the 16th century war between Japan and Korea. The Korean team removed the banner after the IOC warned it was a violation of the Olympic Charter. According to the South Korea's Olympic Committee, the IOC will apply the same rules if the Rising Sun Flag is raised. The South Korean team provided its own food service for the team, claiming that the food served in the Olympic village might be contaminated with radiation.

Russian and South Korean officials took issue with a map of the torch relay on the Games' official website, which depicted the disputed Liancourt Rocks (governed by South Korea) and Kuril Islands (governed by Russia since 1945) as part of Japan.

Portions of the Games are scheduled for locations that were impacted by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The Olympics torch relay was planned to begin in Fukushima, while Olympic baseball and softball matches are scheduled to be played at Fukushima Stadium, and some football matches are expected to be played in Rifu—an outskirt of Sendai, an area impacted by the earthquake and tsunami. The hosting of events in these locations has been promoted as a means of furthering recovery in the regions (the rescheduled Games will mark the events' 10th anniversary), with the Games as a whole sometimes being promoted as the "Recovery Olympics" (Fukkō Gorin (復興五輪)). However, the organization of events in these regions has faced criticism; Fukushima is considered safe by the World Health Organization and the United Nations, although scientific studies on the safety of the area are currently disputed. Some Tōhoku residents have questioned the decision to use the region as a host site, arguing that preparations for the Games have slowed recovery efforts, and that the region has lost workers to projects associated with the Games.

A petition which obtained over 140,000 signatures was delivered to the Japanese Embassy expressing concerns over claims of using tropical wood sourced from Shin Yang, a Malaysian company with a record of human rights abuses, illegal logging and rainforest destruction. In February 2018 the Olympics Organizing Committee admitted that 87% of plywood panels used to build the new national stadium was sourced from endangered rainforests, a decision that received criticism in Borneo and Japan.

After consulting the organization's Athletes' Commission on guidelines prohibiting protests at the Olympics, such as protesting against human rights abuses or taking a knee on the podium, the IOC decided to uphold the ban.

Officials have said that by early June, about 10,000 of the 80,000 registered volunteers had quit. "There's no doubt that one of the reasons is concern over coronavirus infections," the chief executive of the Organizing Committee said, also stating he does not believe this will impact the operation of the Games.

The Nomura Research Institute estimated that cancelling the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2021 would cost around 1.81 trillion yen ($17 billion), less than the economic damages projected if another state of emergency is declared, noting that a decision to hold the games "should be made based on the impact on infection risks, not from the standpoint of economic loss."

Emperor Naruhito, Honorary Patron for the Tokyo 2020 Games, is said to be "extremely worried about the current status of coronavirus infections," and "concerned that while there are voices of anxiety among the public, the holding (of the events) may lead to the expansion of infections".

On 23 July, hundreds of anti-Olympic protestors gathered outside the Japan National Stadium before the opening ceremony. Security guards blocked reporters from leaving the stadium to interview protestors.

The opening ceremony music included arrangements of video game soundtracks originating in Japan; however, this included Dragon Quest series music composed by Koichi Sugiyama, who The Daily Beast described as "notoriously homophobic and ultranationalist", leading to further criticism of the Organizing Committee.

Related to the Organizing Committee

Main article: Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

Several controversial issues occurred in the preparations for the events, and several members of the Organizing Committee resigned as a result of them.

The official emblems of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were designed by Kenjirō Sano and unveiled in July 2015, but they were withdrawn and replaced until next year, following plagiarism accusations. The lawsuit by Olivier Debie, who claimed that his design was plagiarized, was later dropped, with the designer citing escalating legal costs.

On 10 December 2018, the French financial crimes office began an investigation of Tsunekazu Takeda, the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, concerning a 2013 scheme to obtain votes from African IOC members in support of Tokyo as host for the 2020 Olympics instead of Istanbul or Madrid. In March 2020, a Japanese businessman admitted to giving gifts, including cameras and watches, to IOC officials in order to lobby for their support of Tokyo's bid to host the Olympic Games.

In February 2021, the TOCOG president Yoshirō Mori resigned, facing both domestic and international criticisms over his sexist remarks. The following president Seiko Hashimoto's previous conduct has also drawn criticisms, leading her to comment "I regret it and think I should be careful" on one of the accusations. In May, a top Japanese government adviser, Prof. Yoichi Takahashi, resigned following backlash over his tweets joking about Japan's pandemic "ripple".

The head creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies, Hiroshi Sasaki, resigned in March, after making demeaning comments about Naomi Watanabe.

On 14 July 2021, the Organizing Committee announced the creative team for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics, and included Keigo Oyamada of Cornelius as a composer for the opening ceremony. A large amount of people on social media said he was ineligible for such a role because he is widely known for his past bullying of people with apparent disabilities, such as Down syndrome. Such abuses on his peers when at school included forcing them to eat their excrement and masturbate in front of other students, and he himself often boasted about the disability abuse stories in several interviews. On 16 July, a week before the opening ceremony, the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games announced their support of him as a composer and vowed not to change his selection for the ceremonies. Toshirō Mutō, the chief executive of the Organizing Committee, said he wanted Oyamada to remain involved. Growing criticism forced Oyamada to announce his resignation on 19 July.

On 21 July, Japanese media reported that Kentarō Kobayashi, the director of the opening and closing ceremonies after Sasaki resigned, made a joke about the Holocaust in a script for his comedy in 1998, saying "Let's play Holocaust." The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, condemned the joke, stating that "any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims of the Nazi genocide." On 22 July, the day before the opening ceremony, the Organizing Committee announced they would dismiss Kobayashi. On the eve of the opening ceremony, Yoshihide Suga, the Prime Minister of Japan and the Supreme Advisor of the Organizing Committee, described Kobayashi's jokes as "outrageous and unacceptable", but also said that the opening ceremony, which was directed by Kobayashi, should proceed as planned.

On 23 July, the day of the opening ceremony, some media reported that Latyr Sy, a Senegalese artist, wrote on his Facebook page a denunciation of the Organizing Committee for canceling his performance in the opening ceremony due to him being African. Sy said of the Organizing Committee, "It's totally racist". At a regular press conference held the next morning, Masanori Takaya, a spokesperson of the organizing committee, said Sy's claim was completely different from the facts, and said "We had planned a music part in which many singers would participate, but due to infectious disease control and budget, we canceled the part itself. Therefore we canceled the appearance of all the participants in the music part. That is the background of that story."

Broadcasting

Main article: List of 2020 Summer Olympics broadcasters

Sony and Panasonic are partnering with NHK to develop broadcasting standards for 8K resolution television, with a goal to release 8K television sets in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics. In early 2019, Italian broadcaster RAI announced its intention to deploy 8K broadcasting for the Games. Telecom company NTT Docomo signed a deal with Finland's Nokia to provide 5G-ready baseband networks in Japan in time for the Games.

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to be broadcast in the United States by NBCUniversal networks, as part of a US$4.38 billion agreement that began at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee asserts that a "right of abatement" clause in the contract was triggered by the delay of the Games to 2021, requiring the IOC to "negotiate in good faith an equitable reduction in the applicable broadcast rights payments" by NBC, which remains one of IOC's biggest revenue streams. According to NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, the Tokyo games could be the most profitable Olympics in NBC's history.

In Europe, this will be the first Summer Olympics under the IOC's exclusive pan-European rights deal with Eurosport, which began at the 2018 Winter Olympics and is contracted to run through 2024. The rights for the 2020 Summer Olympics cover almost all of Europe; a pre-existing deal with a marketer excludes Russia. Eurosport plans to sub-license coverage to free-to-air networks in each territory, and other channels owned by Discovery, Inc. subsidiaries. In the United Kingdom, these are set to be the last Games with rights owned primarily by the BBC, although as a condition of a sub-licensing agreement due to carry into the 2022 and 2024 Games, Eurosport holds exclusive pay television rights. In France, these will be the last Games whose rights are primarily owned by France Télévisions. Eurosport is scheduled to debut as pay television rightsholder, after Canal+ elected to sell its pay television rights as a cost-saving measure.

In Canada, the 2020 Games are scheduled to be shown on CBC/Radio-Canada platforms, Sportsnet, TSN and TLN. In Australia, they will be aired by the Seven Network. In the Indian subcontinent, they will be aired by Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN).

See also

• 2020 Summer Paralympics
• Olympic Games held in Japan
  • 1964 Summer Olympics – Tokyo
  • 1972 Winter Olympics – Sapporo
  • 1998 Winter Olympics – Nagano
  • 2020 Summer Olympics – Tokyo

• List of IOC country codes

External links

• Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games official website
• Japanese Olympic Committee