THE JAPAN NEWS
 

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The organizing committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games announced Monday the selection of new emblem designs, based on checkered patterns, for the 2020 Games, eight months after the initial designs were withdrawn after allegations of plagiarism.

The new designs received majority support of the Tokyo 2020 Emblems Selection Committee in the first round of voting held in the morning, winning 13 votes from the 21 members of the committee. The new designs were on a short list of four sets selected from 14,599 entries.

At an afternoon executive meeting, the organizing committee approved unanimously the winning proposal, which features popular checkered patterns known as ichimatsu moyo in the Edo period and uses the traditional Japanese color of indigo blue.

“I spent a lot of time on the work. They [the emblems] are like my children,” said artist Asao Tokoro, who created the new designs.