Tokyo Begins Deliberations for '2020 Nippon Festival'

(ATR) A kick-off meeting for the "Tokyo 2020 Festival working group" was held in Tokyo on Monday.

The festival will run from April to September 2020 according to Tokyo 2020 organizers. The Tokyo 2020 culture and education commission had previously discussed the festival, but convened a working group to present more concrete examples.

Masanori Aoyagi, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University, will chair the working group. Aoyagi has also served as chair of the culture and education commission.

The working group discussed the name of the festival, and preliminary trends that the festival could incorporate. A temporary name, the "Tokyo 2020 Nippon Festival," was presented in a press conference after the group’s meeting.

Asao Tokoro will design the festival’s logo. Tokoro also designed the second Tokyo 2020 logo. Festival plans are expected to be announced in July 2018, coinciding with two years to go until the 2020 Olympic Games. Both the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the national government are expected to assist Tokyo 2020 organizers with the festival.

"We would like to make a project that surprises the world with Japanese culture," Aoyagi said at the press conference. "At this meeting, I got fantastic ideas from members for the festival."

Tokyo 2020 released a promotional video about the festival, promoting everyone as "a cultural representative of Japan."

The full video can be seen below:

Written by Aaron Bauerwith reporting by Hironori Hashimoto in Tokyo

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