Online lottery applications for tickets to the 56th Olympic Games hosted by Tokyo in summer 2020 have begun for Japan residents and will be accepted through May 28.
People hoping to attend the games must register through the official ticketing site at Ticket.Tokyo2020.org, and each applicant will be able to register for up to 60 tickets. However, the order of applications will not affect the results of the lottery, which will be chosen on June 20, Jiji Press reports.
Ticket prices and venues were announced last summer. General tickets to events are sold within five price ranges per sport, ranging from the cheapest at ¥2,500 ($22 USD) to the most expensive ticket at ¥130,000 ($1,183 USD). Opening ceremony tickets range from ¥12,000 ($109 USD) to ¥300,000 ($2,730 USD) and closing ceremony tickets are between ¥12,000 ($108 USD) and ¥220,000 ($1,982 USD). The starting price for each event is somewhere between ¥2,500 ($22 USD) and ¥5,800 ($52 USD) for all events.
Tickets for wheelchair users and their companions, as well as special tickets for children, elderly people, or those with disabilities are also available and priced at ¥2,020 ($18 USD).
The games will take place from July 24 to August 9, 2020. Tokyo’s National Stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as athletic competitions, while the prestigious Nippon Budokan venue will host judo, Baji Koen Park for equestrian events, and the Yoyogi National Gymnasium for handball. A press release states that there will be various hospitality programs at next year’s event, including opportunities for spectators to watch large sections of the marathon, road cycling, triathlon, and race walk competitions for free along the city streets.
A bill has been approved in Japan that bans ticket scalping ahead of the Olympic Games. While the country didn’t previously have a rule against online scalping, ticket brokering on streets outside of public events is banned under local ordinances. Scalping is prohibited with this bill, however, individuals can still resell their tickets due to scheduling conflicts through the official ticket resale service starting in spring 2020.
