Belgian Designer Seeks to Halt Use of Olympic Emblem

Tokyo, Aug. 3 (Jiji Press)--A Belgian designer has sent a document to the Japanese Olympic Committee calling for use of the emblem for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to be halted, claiming it resembles a logo he designed for a theater in Liege, Belgium, JOC officials said Monday. The JOC confirmed on Saturday that a fax has arrived from designer Olivier Debie and an agent of the theater. According to the committee, the fax said that the Olympic emblem plagiarizes the theater logo. The letter, written in French and English, was addressed to the JOC and the International Olympic Committee. The JOC forwarded the document to the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which selected the design of the emblem. The letter also arrived by mail on Monday. The organizing committee unveiled the emblems for the Olympics and Paralympics, created by Japanese art designer Kenjiro Sano, on July 24, the day five years before the opening of the Tokyo Games. It was selected from 104 applications from home and abroad. Shortly after the release of the emblem, Debie questioned its design on his Twitter account. Sano previously released a comment saying he was totally unfamiliar with the theater logo and had not used it for reference during the design process. END