Tokyo is in the progress of making an aggressive bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The city previously hosted the Olympic Games in 1964, becoming the first city outside Europe and the USA to host the event. The other candidates for the 2016 games are Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. The Olympic Committee will reach a final decision on October 2, 2009.

Bid Details

Central to the Tokyo bid is the concept of summer games "at the heart of the city". The vast majority of sporting venues are located within an 8 km radius in central Tokyo. Such compact Olympics would be unprecedented. The only venues outside central Tokyo are the shooting range in Saitama Prefecture and the football stadiums in Tokyo's Tama region, Osaka, Yokohama, Saitama City and Sapporo.

The Tokyo bid has designated the schedule of events: the opening ceremony would take place on July 29 and the closing ceremony on August 14. The Paralympics would occur shortly thereafter, from August 30 to September 11.

Olympic Infrastructure

The sporting venues are located in two main zones: the Heritage Zone and the Tokyo Bay Zone. The Heritage Zone consists of existing venues, many of which were already used during the 1964 Olympics. These venues include Yoyogi Stadium, Tokyo Dome, the Kokugikan sumo stadium, the Budokan and the National Stadium.

In the 1964 Games, the Budokan hosted judo competitions and Yoyogi Stadium hosted swimming events. The National Stadium was the site for the opening and closing ceremonies, but would only serve as a venue for football in 2016.

The Tokyo Bay Zone consists of venues on the man made islands of Tokyo Bay, many of which are to be newly constructed, including the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Village. The Olympic Village, located near Odaiba's Tokyo Big Sight, will be only ten minutes away from the majority of venues.

The new Olympic Stadium is the most ambitious building project of the bid, and serves as the location of both the opening and closing ceremonies. The stadium is designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, and has a capacity of 100,000 spectators.