Tokyo National Stadium ready for 2020 Summer Olympics

By Emre Asikci

ANKARA (AA) - Japanese prime minister opened the Tokyo National Stadium, which was built for next summer's Tokyo Olympic Games.

Shinzo Abe underlined that the National Stadium would be the symbol of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The stadium will also be used for athletics and football matches during the Tokyo 2020 games as well as for the opening and closing ceremonies.

Japan began construction of the stadium on December 2016, but construction could not be completed due public outcry over costs.

The project was taken over by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in 2015 and was restored on Nov. 30 this year.

The 68,000-person stadium was built at a cost of 156.9 billion Japanese Yen ($1.44 billion).

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will run between July 24 and Aug. 9.