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Japan's Kids Will Pick the Tokyo 2020 Olympic & Paralympic Games Mascots
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
The final choices for the official mascots of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are in but the results are being left up to the nation's children. Elementary school students all over Japan will get to vote for one of three pairs to represent the events.
The blue and pink pair are supposed to represent the duality of Japan's cutting-edge technology (blue) and its serene, natural environment (pink).
These two mascots represent both the wind and sky. The first character combines the blessings associated with maneki-neko and the foxes seen at inari shrines. The paralympic mascot is modeled after another common shrine sight: the Komainu or lion dogs.
The third pair are a more comical take on the fox motif and the tanuki.
Voting opens on December 11 and elementary schools are required to pre-register before submitting its students' choices. The final results will be announced at the end of February.
A Mascot Selection Review Conference, with a committee comprised of five people including Shoko "Shokotan" Nakagawa, was set up at the beginning of the year to select the final choices.
[Via Nijimen]
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