Olympic flag arrives in Tokyo

Japanese capital gears up to host 2020 Games

The Olympic flag arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday as Japan’s capital gears up to host the 2020 Games, with officials promising smooth sailing after Rio’s sometimes shaky 2016 installment.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike carried the flag during a ceremony at Haneda airport after stepping off a plane from the Brazilian host city, accompanied by a delegation who picked up a record 41 medals in Rio. “I feel the full weight of the responsibility that this brings,” Koike told the crowd.

Tokyo last hosted the Summer Games in 1964, highlighting Japan’s post- war comingout party as it grew into a global economic powerhouse.

A kimono- clad Koike on Sunday received the flag at the closing ceremony in Rio, where thousands of fans and athletes donned ponchos on a wet and windy night for a colorful festival of Brazilian culture and music with bursts of fireworks.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a comical cameo as Nintendo video game character Super Mario as Tokyo set a light- hearted tone for its hosting of the Games in four years.

Abe came out from a pipe after a video showed plumber Mario drilling down from Tokyo into the earth to reach Brazil.

Japan sold itself as a safe pair of hands to host the event, and Abe pledged in Rio he would try to make it the best Games yet.

But Tokyo’s Olympic preparations have suffered highprofile setbacks, including soaring costs and having to redesign the Games logo after accusations of plagiarism.

French prosecutors have also launched an investigation into alleged bribes linked to Tokyo’s winning Olympic bid, which organizers have denied.

Koike, who was elected in July as Tokyo’s first female governor, has ordered officials to rein in ballooning costs and pledged a formal review.

That came as concerns grow over soaring costs that could potentially double or even triple from the reported original forecast of $ 7.14 billion.

The Games was awarded to Tokyo in 2013, with expectations that they would be a model of efficiency with the city touting itself as “peaceful, reliable, safe, and stable.”

Tokyo’s metropolitan conurbation is the world’s largest, with more than 35 million people, but streets are safe, trains run on time and the air is clean.

And with strict gun control and a public honesty visitors find disarming, few people ever experience serious crime.