Intel is collaborating with NEC to provide "a large-scale face recognition system for the Olympics," said Ricardo Echevarria, general manager of Intel's Olympics program. The system is designed to let Olympics organizers "ensure smoothly secure verification for the over 300,000 people at the games who are accredited," he said. People using it will register with photos from government-issued IDs, he added. — CNET

But so far, things have remained “on schedule,” and the Olympic stadium is on pace to be completed by the end of next year. [...]

Takeo Takahashi, the general manager of the stadium project, told the media that “roughly four-tenths” of the construction has been completed, but the situation is “as planned.” — The Japan Times

The organizers of the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Japan want to ensure that visitors from around the world feel welcomed in their capital [...] Japanese event company, Yasu Project, developed a mobile mosque that will travel throughout the multiple Olympic stadiums. The mosque on wheels is located inside a 25-ton truck, with enough room to fit up to 50 people. It is also equipped with an outdoor rinse station, so that users can participate in a pre-worship cleanse. — popupcity.net

A venture firm and a major taxi company began trials of passenger-carrying autonomous taxi services on Monday with an eye on launching the full service around 2020 when Tokyo hosts the Olympics and the Paralympics.

ZMP Inc., a Tokyo-based developer of autonomous driving technology, and Hinomaru Kotsu Co., said they are the first in the world to offer autonomous taxi services to fare-paying passengers in the test through Sept. 8. — Japan Times

Dignitaries at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games will obviously get the best seats--those made of wood--but ordinary common folk will have to make do with plastic. — Asahi Shimbun

Tokyo has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.5bn (£1.2bn) national stadium that will host the 2020 Olympic Games.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, and other dignitaries attended the event on Sunday at the site of the demolished national stadium that was used during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. [...]

The ceremony ended with a video showing how the stadium is expected to look and function once completed by November 2019. — The Guardian

Tokyo-based Dynamic Map Planning will undertake the task of mapping out roadways in the highest detail to date (featuring such useful insights as curb location, lane height, and limits on turning), intended to be 20 times as precise as current maps [...]

The company will also lead the effort to equip Tokyo with digital infrastructure that will allow self-driving vehicles to pick up on factors that can change or appear in their surroundings as often as every few minutes or even seconds — forbes.com

Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizers on Monday chose logo A — a stark indigo-and-white checkered circle — as the games’ replacement emblem after the original design was scrapped last year amid claims of plagiarism.

The Tokyo 2020 Logo Selection Committee chose the logo from a shortlist of four following a competition open to any resident of Japan aged over 18. Almost 15,000 entries were submitted.

The winning logo was designed by Asao Tokolo, a 46-year-old artist [...]. — japantimes.co.jp

The organisers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are refusing to pay a British architect for her designs for its main stadium unless she gives up the copyright and signs what amounts to a gagging order, it has been claimed.

Zaha Hadid Architects, which won the original contract to build a state-of-the-art national stadium in the Japanese capital, has reacted angrily to the attempt by the Japan Sports Council to effectively seize ownership of the copyrighted designs. — the Telegraph

The government on Tuesday picked a design by architect Kengo Kuma for the new National Stadium, a building that is expected to become the centerpiece of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

One of two short-listed entries and identified until now only as design A, Kuma’s plan was a joint submission in partnership with construction giant Taisei Corp.

The competing design, identified as design B, was by architect Toyo Ito [...]. — japantimes.co.jp

Wood latticework, green shrubbery, sunken sports fields and temple-like touches can be seen in the two final design proposals for Tokyo’s controversial new Olympic Stadium. [...] The new proposals [...] are more understated in style and also smaller in physical form compared to the originally commissioned design. [...]

The agency has not named the firms behind the two final designs, although unconfirmed local media reports stated that they were Kengo Kuma and Toyo Ito [...]. — telegraph.co.uk

'We’re expecting at least 10,000 applications this time,' said Ryohei Miyata, head of the selection committee.

Only 104 applications were accepted for the previous competition.

Applicants this time only have to be 18 or older and a resident of Japan. The committee will accept an entry by a group if the leader of the group meets the age and resident criteria, meaning that people younger than 18 can still take part. — The Japan Times

Tokyo-based Robot Taxi ... is still on track to start field tests of its driverless taxi service in one region of Japan by the end of next March [...]

The company, a joint venture between DeNA (one of Japan’s mobile internet pioneers) and ZMP (a robotics firm; tagline “Robot of Everything”) is not building its own cars from scratch. Instead, it’s focusing on adding driverless capabilities to existing cars and designing, creating, and marketing the taxi service. — qz.com