Mascot designs for 2020 Tokyo Olympics shortlisted

TOKYO – Japanese schoolchildren will help determine the mascot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics on Thursday unveiled three sets of designs for the games’ mascots. The 6.5 million schoolchildren will review the shortlisted designs with their classes casting a single vote in favour of one of the three sets.

The three finalists were selected from among 2,042 entries submitted by the public, with the winner to be announced on Feb. 28.

The first set is a pair of humanoid characters clad in the ‘ichimatsu” checkered pattern of the Games’ official logo.

The second set features a “maneki neko” (good-luck cat) and a fox commonly seen at Shinto shrines. The third set features a fox and a dog with gold ribbons on their backs.

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled for July 24 to Aug. 9, 2020.