Work on Tokyo’s National Stadium has been completed ahead of its grand opening next month.
The 60,000-seat stadium, which will serve as the centrepiece of Tokyo’s Olympic Games next summer, is scheduled to be officially unveiled on December 21 with a celebratory ‘One Race’ event, as announced by the Japan Sport Council (JSC) last month.
The JSC has now revealed that only final quality and safety checks are needed before the venue can open its doors to the public.
Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that the stadium would be handed over to JSC authorities on November 30 by a joint venture made up of the office of architect Kengo Kuma, construction company Taisei Corporation and design firm Azusa Sekkei Co.
The stadium has cost more than $1.25bn (£966m/€1.13bn) to build and had originally been due to stage games at the recent Rugby World Cup. However, after opposition to the increasing building costs involved with the initial project, a new design was approved which led to a 14-month delay to the start of construction work.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will run from July 24 to August 9, with the Paralympics to follow from August 25 to September 6. The new National Stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as athletics and football events.
The first sporting event at the new stadium will be the final of the Emperor’s Cup football competition on January 1.
Last month, work was completed on Tokyo 2020’s Ariake Gymnastics Centre, which will have a capacity of 12,000. The other permanent new venues scheduled to open in the coming weeks and months are the Ariake Arena and the Aquatics Centre.
Image: Tokyo 2020
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