Japan accused of stealing emblem for 2020 Olympics

A Belgian designer has accused Japanese organisers of the 2020 Summer Olympics of plagiarism, a media report said on Friday.

The designer said the emblem of the Tokyo Games was similar to the one he designed for a theatre in the east of Belgium, TASS quoted Kyodo as saying.

Olivier Debie, a Belgium-based designer, expressed "surprise on social media that the emblem for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games unveiled last week, closely resembles the logo for a theatre in Liege" that his studio crafted.

The official emblem for the 2020 Olympics was unveiled in Tokyo on July 24 and resembles a simple letter "T" in gold, red, black and silver against a white background.

The designer said: "I cannot judge whether it was stolen or inspired by my work. I am consulting with my lawyer," adding: "There is a striking resemblance between the two logos."

Japan won the bid to host the games at the 125th Session of the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires on September 7, 2013 and the official Olympics emblem produced by Kenjiro Sano, a 43-year-old Japanese art director, was unveiled a week ago.

"We announced the emblem after going through the international trademark registration process," Masanori Takaya, publicity chief of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, was quoted as saying.