[1] The IOC shortlisted four of the seven applicant cities—Chicago, United States; Madrid, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Tokyo, Japan; over Baku, Azerbaijan; Doha, Qatar; and Prague, Czech Republic—on June 4, 2008 during a meeting in Athens, Greece.

[2][3][4] This was followed by an intensive bidding process which finished with the election of Rio de Janeiro at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 2, 2009.

[7][8] The Commission attended technical presentations, participated in question-and-answer sessions about the Candidature File and made inspections in all the existing venues across the city.

[citation needed] Tokyo has also been consistent in funding public transport, a strength compared to other bid cities.

Weber Shandwick's track record includes working on previous bids for the winning campaigns of Sydney in 2000, Turin in 2006, Beijing in 2008, and Sochi in 2014.

[20] A new stadium (designed by Tadao Ando) was to be built to seat 100,000, and later pared back to 80,000 to leave a desired "legacy building".

For example, the Olympic village, built in the Ariake area bordering Tokyo Bay, would feature an array of eco-friendly systems such as solar and renewable energy, and aim for total waste recycling.

The trash landfill will be transformed into a green forest where 480,000 trees will be planted, in addition to the sports venues located on the island.

[16] In addition, Tokyo plans to promote the use of more low-emissions buses and other vehicles in order to reduce in traffic congestion and help curb emissions from carbon dioxide.

The five Olympic colors are used in the decorative knot; the musubi has long been utilized in Japan to signify blessings during times of celebration.

However, the DPJ voted for the resolutions which support this bid, both in the Diet and the Assembly, and their new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama attended the meeting in Copenhagen.

Many former Olympic athletes lent their support on the Tokyo bid committee website, including Kōsuke Kitajima (gold medalist for the men's 100m and 200m breaststroke at both the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 games).

In the PR video, French-Japanese TV announcer Christel Takigawa introduces the charm of Tokyo in French, and Riyo Mori, the Miss Universe 2007 winner, spoke in English.

Naoko Takahashi, the champion in Sydney 2000 and the former world record holder in the women's marathon, is the project reader of a roughly 10,000 km (6,200 mi)virtual ekiden (long distance relay) from Tokyo to Copenhagen, the venue of the IOC meeting to determine the host city on October 2, 2009.