What you want to know about this year's Summer Olympic Games in Japan

Photo courtesy of Japan National Tourism Organization

This year's Olympics will be strange, for sure. Postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the much-anticipated Summer Games will finally take place in Tokyo, Hokkaido, Fukushima and other locations in Japan from July 23 to August 8, followed by the Paralympics from August 24 to September 5.

Even though they're being staged in 2021, officially it’s still called the 2020 Summer Olympics. In addition, no overseas visitors will be allowed to attend, and even the number of domestic spectators will be severely limited. 

Nevertheless, the world’s focus will soon be on the more than 11,000 athletes competing in 33 sports and 339 events, who will face plenty of restrictions of their own. To prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Japan, where fewer than 10 percent of the population had been vaccinated in the weeks prior to the Games, athletes will be tested for the coronavirus daily, are not allowed to socialize or visit tourist areas, and must depart Japan within 48 hours after their final event.

But at a time when international travel and sporting events have been largely restricted or nonexistent for more than a year, the 2020 Olympics will provide a welcome summer diversion. Because of the time difference, NBC broadcasts of some events, such as the Opening Ceremony and gymnastics, will be shown in the U.S. in the morning (a schedule of events is posted on the official Tokyo Olympics website).

Japan has pledged that the Games will showcase the latest in technology, sustainability and accessibility, reflected in everything from the utilization of recycled materials to robots. Here are other things to know about the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reiber

Meet the mascots

Mascots are huge in Japan. Japanese elementary children chose the mascots for the 2020 Olympics, with Miraitowa winning the competition for the Summer Games and Someity selected for the Paralympics. Naturally, both mascots have serious superpowers.

Miraitowa can instantly teleport anywhere it wants, while Someity can fly using its cape, has telepathic abilities and is able to move objects simply by looking at them.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reiber

2020 Olympics torch relay is a message of hope

The 2020 Olympic torch relay began March 25 at Japan's national soccer training facility in Fukushima Prefecture, with plans to travel through all 47 prefectures before arriving at the Opening Ceremony in Tokyo on July 23. However, due to concerns of COVID-19, the relay was cancelled in many prefectures and curtailed in others. Many prefectures held their torch ceremonies without any spectators.

Sadly, that has meant that many of the torchbearers were left without a torch to bear, including the world's oldest-living person, a 118-year-old woman who was afraid of carrying the coronavirus back to fellow residents at a care facility.

Although the theme of the torch relay, "Hope Lights Our Way," was originally conceived to highlight the recovery of seaside towns devastated by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, it has since expanded to include a message of hope for a post-pandemic world.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reiber

Technology at the forefront

Driverless cars at the 2020 Olympics might turn heads, but it's the futuristic robots that are likely to steal the show. Developed by Toyota, robots will greet athletes, give directions, broadcast the Games to those watching remotely and perform such mundane tasks as retrieving javelins and other field items at the Olympic Stadium.

Even Miraitowa and Someity, the Olympic and Paralympic mascots, will appear in robotic form, waving, shaking hands, and interacting with those around them.

To beat Tokyo's oppressive summer heat and humidity, traditional steps such as more shady areas and misting stations will join innovative architectural measures. The Olympic Stadium, for example, does not have air-conditioning but has large eaves inspired by traditional Japanese architecture that will provide shade and facilitate wind flow, making it 18 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the outside air.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reiber

Recycled materials support sustainability

More recycled materials are being used in the 2020 Olympics than ever before. Approximately 30 percent of the material used in the relay torches is made from recycled aluminum taken from temporary housing after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, while the torchbearers themselves are outfitted with uniforms made from recycled plastic bottles.

This is the first Olympics to involve its citizens in the production of gold, silver and bronze medals, made from recycled cellphones and other electronic gadgets donated by the public.

Also a first are the sustainable 98 podiums upon which Olympians will stand to receive their medals, created from household plastic waste – the equivalent of 400,000 bottles of laundry detergent – gathered by the public.

Trays carrying the medals were produced using recyclable thermoplastic polymer, while volunteers carrying the trays and escorting athletes will wear costumes that incorporate traditional kimono production techniques but are made from recycled fibers and designed with a cooling technology.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reiber

Tokyo improves accessiblity for Paralympics

Although Japan has been a forerunner in infrastructure for the visually impaired, including tactile guiding blocks on sidewalks and chirping at intersections to signal light changes, the Paralympics are fostering long-overdue improvements in accessibility.

Welcome changes include more accessibility in transportation, restrooms, sidewalks and hotel rooms (known as “universal” rooms in Japan). New platforms and elevators have been added to railway stations, while a new law states that 1 percent of a hotel's rooms must be accessible (as opposed to the old law dictating that only hotels with more than 50 rooms had to provide at least one accessible room).

A bigger hope is that the Paralympics will change public perception of people with disabilities and what they can accomplish.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reiber

These are the second Summer Games held in Tokyo

The first Olympic Games ever held in Asia took place in Tokyo in 1964, less than two decades after World War II had reduced the city to rubble.

The first Olympics to be telecasted internationally via satellite to a worldwide audience, the 1964 Olympics dazzled the world with futuristic sports venues, luxury hotels, a new monorail from the airport, an elevated metropolitan expressway system that wove between buildings and the launch of the world's first high-speed bullet train, the Shinkansen.

Photo courtesy of Tourism Commission of Hakuba Village

Two Winter Olympics were also held in Japan

Japan had another first in 1972, when Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido became the first city outside Europe and North America to host the Winter Olympics. It was also the first time that Japan won a gold medal at the Winter Games, when Yukio Kasaya claimed gold in the normal hill ski-jumping event and his fellow teammates won silver and bronze.

Because of heat concerns in Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics, Sapporo will host this summer's marathons and race walks. Sapporo is also one of several cities that has expressed an interest in hosting the 2030 Winter Games.

The mountainous prefecture of Nagano hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, where snowboarding made its debut, women's ice hockey was added to the lineup and curling returned as an Olympic sport. Lasting legacies of the Nagano Olympics include a Shinkansen railway line connecting Tokyo with Nagano and the curling venue Karuizawa Ice Park, where visitors can try their hand at curling.

Photo courtesy of Japan National Tourism Organization

Four sports will make their first-ever debut at the Olympics

While just nine different sports made their appearance in the first modern Olympics held in Athens in 1896, the 2020 Olympics lineup features 33 sports, four of which are new to the Games: karate, which originated in the Ryukyu Kingdom (now Okinawa), sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing.

In addition, baseball (for men) and softball (for women) will return to the Olympics after a 13-year absence, while some sports have added new events, like three-on-three basketball.

Photo courtesy of Beth Reiber

You can't attend the 2020 Olympics, but you can catch the excitement later at the Japan Olympic Museum

Located across from the Olympic Stadium, the Japan Olympic Museum relates the history of the Olympic Games, displays relay torches, posters and other historic items from previous Games, and gives voice to former Olympians relating their stories and experiences.

A dynamic film captures the excitement of past Opening Ceremonies and Olympic events, while a simulation room lets visitors see how they stack up against Olympians in activities like jumping, balancing and other skills required in sports like basketball and skateboarding.