“I strongly feel a heavy responsiblity” for the next Olympics, Koike told the crowd.
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Koike received the flag at Sunday’s closing ceremonies of the Rio Games from Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
Known for its love affair with technology, Japan will look to recycle its mountains of e-waste from consumer electronics, which contain enough precious metals to create all the gold, silver and bronze Olympic and Paralympic medals at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Discussed by organisers, the government and private companies in June, the scheme would no doubt save money and perhaps encourage an uptake in recycling, if it gets the go-ahead. His overalls drop to reveal Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan, hiding in the Mario disguise.
Mr. Abe hopes the Olympics will help him meet his goal of doubling the number of annual tourists to the country to 40 million by 2020, two years after his term ends.
In a brief short that closed out the ceremony, Mario searches for the quickest path from Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro, and of course, for Mario, that’s through a green pipe straight through the center of the Earth.
Japan sold itself as a safe pair of hands to host the event and Abe pledged in Rio he would try to make it the best Games yet.
The flag, bearing the symbol of the five interlocking rings, arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on charter flights with the delegation, which bagged a record 41 medals at the August 5-21 games in Rio de Janeiro.
For the 2020 Games, Japanese authorities plan “to source the gold, silver and bronze needed to make medals for the games by tapping the country’s “urban mine” the Nikkei Asian Review reports”.
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And with strict gun control and a public honesty visitors find disarming, few people ever experience serious crime.
