The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) today unveiled their official Olympic and Paralympic mascots, following an evaluation of three shortlisted design sets by elementary schoolchildren across Japan and at Japanese schools overseas.

Design Set A secured the largest number of classroom votes – receiving 109,041 votes, while Design Set B attracted 61,423 votes and Design Set C received 35,291 – and will accordingly serve as the official mascots of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The results of the vote were announced in front of around 600 children at Hoyonomori Gakuen School in Tokyo, one of the schools which participated in the voting process. The ceremony was live-streamed to allow children all over the country to share the moment and discover the winner in real time. Public viewings were also organised in several schools.

The designer of the winning mascots is Ryo Taniguchi. Born in 1974, Taniguchi lives in Fukuoka, in southern Japan. He graduated as an art major from Cabrillo College in California, in the United States, and is currently active as a character designer/illustrator. His work has been featured by companies and at exhibitions in Japan.

The names of the mascots will now be decided by the Mascot Selection Panel and officially announced next Summer.

The mascot voting process was part of Tokyo 2020’s nationwide educational programme called “Yoi Don!” (“Get Set”), which brings the Olympic and Paralympic Games into schools across Japan and allows students to actively participate in educational initiatives linked to the Games. By encouraging discussion of the mascots in classes, the voting process helped children learn about the values of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements.

“The children selected two mascots that embody both ancient tradition and new innovation. I believe this is an excellent choice since Tokyo 2020’s branding vision is “innovation from harmony”, which implies that innovation will occur when the old and the new of Tokyo and Japan come together- commented Ryohei Miyata, Mascot Selection Panel Chairperson.

The tradition of creating mascots for the Olympic Games started in 1968 at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble (FRA). The first Summer mascots were introduced in 1972 at the Munich Olympic Games.