Tokyo is ready to start the construction of the National Stadium to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The groundbreaking ceremony on December 11, 2016 was led by Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, together with other dignitaries. The whole stadium is said to cost $1.5 billion. The ceremony started with officials and guests placing their hands on a glass sphere that circles through the blue, yellow, black, green and red colors of the Olympic logo.
The National Stadium, which was built in the late 1950s, was used during the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Fans of the old stadium tried to persuade the Japanese government to keep the original structure and just renovate it. But in the end the government opted to replace it with a more modern facility. However, for the 2020 Olympic Games, the government decided to demolish the old structure and replace it with a more modernized design.
The design of the new open-air stadium was made by Architect Kengo Kuma. According to The Guardian, Kuma wants to echo the traditional Japanese styles seen in shrines and pagodas, thus choosing a wooden lattice design. The intention is to minimize temperature control costs while blending the design with the surrounding parkland. Materials to be used are locally-grown larch in the roof and panels, which also helps keep costs down.
Koike, Tokyo's first female governor, pledged to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games as cost-efficient and environment-friendly as possible. After taking office in July, she harshly criticized the organizers of the 2020 Olympic Games for failing to keep costs under control. According to Fox News, the original plan was a controversial Zaha Hadid-designed stadium which would have cost $2 billion. But the Japanese government decided to change the entire design because of the high cost of the design, as well as protests from the public on its scale and appearance.
The groundbreaking ceremony of the National Stadium ended with a video showing how the stadium is expected to look and function once construction is finished. The stadium is expected to be completed by November 2019.
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