Mascots of Tokyo 2020 Olympic & Paralympic Games Have Been Selected

On February 28, the mascot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic & Paralympic games were voted on by elementary school children from all over Japan as well as children from international schools in Japan and Japanese schools overseas. The school children voted from a selection of three finalist pairs of mascots. Each mascot was checked for any proprietary issues—specifically trademark searches were conducted—before being sent to the schools with pictures, promotion videos, and profiles of the mascots. Even blind school children were included in the voting process. For blind school children solid models were also distributed so that the school children could touch the models and understand the mascots’designs.

16,769 schools participated in the selection, and each class voted for their favorite pair after learning about and discussing the Olympic & Paralympic games. The mascots which obtained the highest number of votes—109,041 votes—were selected as the official mascots.

Moreover, applications for the trademarks have already been filed and the applications are Japanese Trademark Application NO. 2017-159989 and NO. 2017-159990.

While the mascots have now been selected, the names of the mascots have yet to be decided. The names are to be formally announced this summer. Before announcing the names of the mascots, a trademark clearance search will be conducted in order to ensure that there are no conflicts.