Japan Press Weekly

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2015 September 2 - 8 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Organizing committee responsible for alleged design theft of Olympic emblem: sports journalist

The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games on September 1 decided to abandon the current design of the official emblem to be used in the 2020 Summer Games following the criticism that the design closely resembles that of the logo for a Belgium theater.

This is another scandal that the committee has had to face after being forced to scrap the design of the planned Olympic stadium itself.

At a press conference held on the day, Muto Toshiro of the organizing committee said that the designer of the current emblem, Sano Kenjiro, volunteered to withdraw his design in order to avoid damaging the image of the sports event. According to Muto, while denying the allegation of plagiarism, Sano admitted that he had used other designers’ photos without permission to create landscape images containing the emblem.

Even if the design of the emblem is original to Sano, the inappropriate use of the emblem goes against the Olympic spirit. Sano should accept the blame for that.

The organizing committee, which is responsible for the selection of the emblem design, failed to properly comply with the Olympic Charter. After the case of alleged design theft came about in early-August, Organizing Committee President Mori Yoshiro ignored the criticism by saying that the selection procedure was proper and that the committee will keep using the design.

Sports journalist Taniguchi Gentaro said that it is unprecedented that an emblem chosen for the Olympic Games was cancelled. He severely criticized the organizing committee for having failed to take action immediately after the allegation arose.

Taniguchi pointed out that very few members of the organizing committee fully understand the Olympic values and ideals as well as the owner of participating in the sports themselves. He argued that the Japanese Olympic Committee as the athletes’ organization in Japan, not the Mori-headed organizing committee, should take the lead in the operation of the 2020 Summer Games.


Past related articles:
> Ex-PM Mori is not qualified to organize 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics [July 27, 2015]
> PM Abe gives up costly Olympic stadium construction plan [July 18, 2015]