In the capital, The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) announced on May 11th, that in preparation for narrowing down the additional events by venue and audience, the committee will start taking applications and indicated the need for an entry outline to all of the hopeful leagues. The leagues that can apply are designated as an organization that is at present in the International Federations (IF), recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and are not currently included in the 2020 games.

On this day, the organization committee announced that there are a total of 33 sports in the International Sports Federation; among those, there are leagues that have already official declared intent to apply (karate, baseball, softball, squash, tug-of-war, billiards, etc.) and others that have not announced intent to apply (sumo, cricket, American football, chess, etc.). In response to the 33 candidates, the committee announced that it has already sent application forms that ask detailed questions about the number of athletes, world-wide appeal, as well as records and presence in large events. The deadline to submit this paperwork is June 8th.

The main focus of the selection process will be as follows: (1) It promotes the value of movement and the Olympics with a strong focus on appealing to younger generations. (2) It reflects the vision of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and brings added value to the games by drawing a new audience and creating new opportunities within Japan. (3) The selection process is fair and impartial.

Moving forward, the paper application reviewing process will be finished by June 22nd and the groups that pass the screening will undergo a hearing in the beginning of August, from which the groups that will be presented to the IOC will be decided by September 30th.

Next year, the IOC board of directors will announce the criteria of selection for the groups and August at the IOC general meeting the final decision will be made.