2020 Summer Olympics

Bidding process

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 A bid from Rome was withdrawn.

The IOC voted to select the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics on 7 September 2013 at the 125th IOC Session at the Buenos Aires Hilton in Buenos Aires, Argentina. An exhaustive ballot system was used. No city won over 50% of the votes in the first round, and Madrid and Istanbul were tied for second place. A run-off vote between these two cities was held to determine which would be eliminated. In the final vote, a head-to-head contest between Tokyo and Istanbul, Tokyo was selected by 60 votes to 36.

Development and preparation

The Tokyo metropolitan government set aside a fund of 400 billion Japanese yen (over 3 billion USD) to cover the cost of hosting the Games. The Japanese government is considering increasing slot capacity at both Haneda Airport and Narita International Airport by easing airspace restrictions. A new railway line is 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; the line would cost 400 billion yen and would be funded primarily by private investors. But East Japan Railway Company (East JR) is planning a new route near Tamachi to Haneda Airport. Funding is also planned to accelerate completion of the Central Circular Route, Tokyo Gaikan Expressway and Ken-Ō Expressway, and to refurbish other major expressways in the area. There are also plans to extend the Yurikamome automated transit line from its existing terminal at Toyosu Station to a new terminal at Kachidoki Station, passing the site of the Olympic Village, although the Yurikamome would still not have adequate capacity to serve major events in the Odaiba area on its own.

The Organizing Committee is headed by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Olympic and Paralympic Minister Toshiaki Endo is overseeing the preparations on behalf of the Japanese government.

Venues and infrastructure

It was confirmed in February 2012 that the National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo would receive a $1 billion upgrade and full–scale reconstruction for the 2019 Rugby World Cup as well as the 2020 Olympics. As a result, a design competition for the new stadium was launched. In November 2012, the Japan Sport Council announced that out of 46 finalists, Zaha Hadid Architects was awarded the design for the new stadium. Plans included dismantling the original stadium, and expanding the capacity from 50,000 to a modern Olympic capacity of about 80,000. However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in July 2015 that plans to build the new National Stadium would be scrapped and rebid on amid public discontent over the stadium's building costs. In Autumn 2015 a new design by Kengo Kuma was approved as winning project of new stadium design competition which decreased the capacity to between 60,000–80,000 depending by event

28 of the 33 competition venues in Tokyo are within 8 kilometres (4.97 miles) of the Olympic Village. 11 new venues are to be constructed.

It was reported in September 2016 that a review panel said that the cost of hosting the Olympics and Paralympics could quadruple from the original estimate, and therefore proposed a major overhaul to the current plan to reduce costs, including moving venues outside Tokyo.

Heritage Zone

Seven venues will be located within the central business area of Tokyo, northwest of the Olympic Village. Several of these venues were also used for the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Tokyo Bay Zone

20 venues will be located in the vicinity of Tokyo Bay, southeast of the Olympic Village, predominantly on Ariake, Odaiba and the surrounding artificial islands.

Sites farther than 8 kilometres (5 mi) from the Olympic Village

Football venues

Non-competition venues

Tickets

The opening ceremony category tickets will range from 25,000 to 150,000 yen. 30,000 yen will be the maximum price for the final of popular games, such as athletics and swimming. The average price of all the Olympic tickets is 7,700 yen. 60% of the tickets will be sold for 4,400 yen or less. Tickets will be sold through 40,000 shops in Japan and on the internet.

Sports

The 2020 Summer Olympic program is scheduled to feature 33 sports and a total of 47 disciplines and 324 events.

New sports

Following the 2012 Games, the IOC assessed the 26 sports held in London, with the remit of selecting 25 'core' sports to join new entrants golf and rugby sevens at the 2020 Games. In effect, this would involve the dropping of one sport from the 2016 Games program. This would leave a single vacancy in the 2020 Games program, which the IOC would seek to fill from a shortlist containing seven unrepresented sports and the removed sport. On 12 February 2013, IOC leaders voted to drop wrestling from the Olympic program, a surprise decision that removed one of the oldest Olympic sports from the 2020 Games. Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, and even further to the Ancient Olympic Games. The decision to drop wrestling was opposed in many countries and by their NOCs. Wrestling therefore joined other sports in a short list applying for inclusion in the 2020 Games.

On 29 May 2013, it was announced that three sports made the final shortlist; squash, baseball/softball, and wrestling. Five other sports (karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding, and wushu) were excluded from consideration at this point. On 8 September 2013, at the 125th IOC Session, the IOC selected wrestling to be included in the Olympic program for 2020 and 2024. Wrestling secured 49 votes, while baseball/softball secured 24 votes and squash got 22 votes.

Under new IOC policies that shift the Games to an "event-based" programme rather than sport-based, the host organizing committee can now also propose the addition of sports to the programme. This rule is designed so that sports popular in the host country can be added to the programme to improve local interest. As a result of these changes, a new shortlist of eight 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, organisers submitted their shortlist of five proposed sports to the IOC: baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding. The five proposed sports were approved on 3 August 2016 by the IOC during the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and will be included in the sports programme for 2020 only, bringing the total number of sports at the 2020 Olympics to 33.

Calendar

All dates are Tokyo Time (UTC+9). This calendar is adapted from the candidature file and does not include sports added in 2016.

Emblem

The official emblems for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 25 April 2016; designed by Asao Tokoro, who won a nationwide design contest, it takes the form of a ring in an indigo-coloured (koi-ai in the traditional colors of Japan, which means love) checkerboard pattern. The design is meant to "express a refined elegance and sophistication that exemplifies Japan". The designs replaced a previous emblem which had been scrapped due to allegations that it plagiarized the logo of a Belgian theatre.

Sponsors

As of 2015 total sponsorship for the 2020 Games reached approximately $1.3 billion, setting an Olympics record (the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing attracted $1.2 billion).

IAAF bribery claims

In January 2016, the second part of a World Anti-Doping Agency commission report into corruption included a footnote detailing a conversation between Khalil Diack, son of former International Athletic Association Federation (IAAF) president Lamine Diack, and Turkish officials heading up the Istanbul bid team. A transcript of the conversation cited in the report suggested that a "sponsorship" payment of between US$4 million and 5 million had been made by the Japanese bid team "either to the Diamond League or IAAF". The footnote claimed that because Istanbul did not make such a payment, the bid lost the support of Lamine Diack. The WADA declined to investigate the claims because it was, according to its independent commission, outside the agency's remit.

In July and October 2013 (prior to and after being awarded the Games), Tokyo made two bank payments totalling SG$2.8 million to a Singapore-based company known as Black Tidings. The company is tied to Papa Massata Diack, a son of Lamine Diack who worked as a marketing consultant for the IAAF, and is being pursued by French authorities under allegations of bribery, corruption, and money laundering. Black Tidings is held by Ian Tan Tong Han, a consultant to Athletics Management and Services—which manages the IAAF's commercial rights, and has business relationships with Japanese firm Dentsu. Black Tidings has also been connected to a doping scandal involving the Russian athletics team.

Japanese Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 board member Tsunekazu Takeda stated that the payments were for consulting services, but refused to discuss the matter further because it was confidential. Toshiaki Endo called on Takeda to publicly discuss the matter. Massata denied that he had received any money from Tokyo's organizing committee. The IOC established a team to investigate these matters, and will closely follow the French investigation.

Logo plagiarism

The initial design for the official emblems of the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 24 July 2015. The logo resembled a stylized "T"; a red circle in the top-right corner represented a beating heart, the flag of Japan, and an "inclusive world in which everyone accepts each other", and a black column in the centre represented diversity.

Shortly after the unveiling, Belgian graphics designer Olivier Debie accused the organizing committee of plagiarizing a logo he had designed for the Théâtre de Liège, which aside from the circle, consisted of nearly identical shapes. Tokyo's organizing committee denied that the emblem design was plagiarized, arguing that the design had gone through "long, extensive and international" intellectual property examinations before it was cleared for use. Debie filed a lawsuit against the IOC to prevent use of the infringing logo.

The emblem's designer, Kenjiro Sano, defended the design, stating that he had never seen the Liège logo, while TOCOG released an early sketch of the design that emphasized a stylized "T" and did not resemble the Liège logo. However, Sano was found to have had a history of plagiarism, with others alleging his early design plagiarized work of Jan Tschichold, that he used a photo without permission in promotional materials for the emblem, along with other past cases. On 1 September 2015, following an emergency meeting of TOCOG, Governor of Tokyo Yoichi Masuzoe announced that they had decided to scrap Sano's two logos. The committee met on 2 September 2015 to decide how to approach another new logo design.

On 24 November 2015, an Emblems Selection Committee was established to organize an open call for design proposals, open to Japanese residents over the age of 18, with a deadline set for 7 December 2015. The winner would receive ¥1 million and tickets to the opening ceremonies of both the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. On 8 April 2016, a new shortlist of four pairs of designs for the Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled by the Emblems Selection Committee; the Committee's selection—with influence from a public poll, was presented to TOCOG on 25 April 2016 for final approval.

Broadcasting

In the United States, the 2020 Summer Olympics will be broadcast by NBCUniversal properties, as part of a US$4.38 billion agreement that began at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

In Japan, NHK, TBS, TV Asahi and Fuji Television will be broadcast on all platforms while TV Tokyo, Nippon TV and UHF independent stations will broadcast only on terrestrial television.

In Europe, this will be the first Summer Olympics under the IOC's exclusive pan-European rights deal with Discovery Communications, which will begin at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The rights for the 2020 Games cover almost all of Europe, excluding France due to an existing rights deal that will expire following these Games, and Russia. Discovery will sub-license coverage to free-to-air networks in each territory. In the United Kingdom, these will be the last Games whose rights are fully owned by the BBC, although as a condition of a sub-licensing agreement that will carry into the 2022 and 2024 Games, Discovery holds exclusive pay television rights to these Games.