Eiji Noda reports in the Asahi Shimbun that Asao Tokoro, the creator of the official logos for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics got the inspiration for the logo from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Tokoro said that when he saw footage of the attacks he began to think about the divisions that exist between people and believes that links are a way to close such rifts. His work then experimented with different patterns around the central idea of links.
His Olympic design links 45 deep blue pieces in a checkered design. Checks are a traditional design in Japan and in many other countries.
Mr. Tokoro won the Olympic logo competition in April. His was the winning design out of 14,599 others.
