Tokyo: The Olympic flag, carried by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, arrived in the Japanese capital, the host city of the 2020 Olympic Games on Wednesday.
Koike was accompanied by a delegation of Japanese athletes — who recently won 41 medals in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics — as he arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport carrying the famous flag with five interlocking rings.
The governor, who took office after winning a landslide victory in the July 31 Tokyo gubernatorial election, received the flag from International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach during the closing ceremony at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 21.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government told Japanese media the flag will be kept at its headquarters until the arrival of the Paralympic flag in September.
Authorities plan to display both flags in different areas of the East Asian archipelago to promote the 2020 Summer Olympics.
It will be the second time the Summer Olympics are held in the Japanese capital, which previously hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Koike called for all parties to work together to host a successful Summer Games in 2020.
“Let’s work together with everyone to hold a great Olympics and Paralymics as the Olympic flag, which just arrived, is a symbol of,” she told reporters after waving the flag upon stepping off the flight at Haneda airport.
The Tokyo Games have been hit by series of issues including the scrapping of plans for the main stadium, which lead to delays in construction, and plagiarism allegations, which forced organisers to ditch the original logo for the Games.
Koike was joined on the flight by Japanese athletes who took part in the Rio de Janeiro Games, where Japan won 12 gold medals — their best tally since 2004 — and a record 41 overall.
Keisuke Ushiro, who took part in the decathlon in Brazil, followed Koike off the plane waving a Japanese Olympic Committee flag.
