Tokyo: The Japanese Olympic Committee on Wednesday chose Tokyo over the southwestern city of Fukuoka as the country's pick to vie for the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The 55-member selection committee held a vote at a Tokyo hotel to choose between the two cities after presentations were made for each candidate city. The vote was 33-22.
"Now we want to congratulate the people of Tokyo," JOC President Tsunekazu Takeda said.
Japanese officials quickly acknowledged Tokyo's bid face tough competition ahead and vowed to work hard.
Brazil, Spain, the United States and India are among the potential host nations for the Games, along with Japan.
Though Tokyo hosted of the Summer Games in 1964, it would be hard for another Asian city to become the host of the 2016 Olympics after the Beijing Games in 2008, Japanese media said.
"We know some people are saying it would be difficult for Japan to host the Olympics. The JOC does not think so, however. We believe we have a great chance," Takeda said.
The International Olympic Committee will send out requests for 2016 bids early next year. The host city will be picked in 2009.
"We must make every effort to be chosen by the IOC and I would like to ask everyone to give us know-how," Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said of Tokyo's selection.
Tokyo has billed itself as the "compact" choice, promising to provide facilities for 26 of 28 games within a 10-kilometre (6-mile) radius of downtown.
It says that each venue can be reached within 20 minutes from athletes' villages by designating special lanes for the games on the capital's highways and regular roads.
Tokyo also proposes to build a main stadium that could seat 100,000 people, said to be the largest arena in Japan, and utilise some of the facilities from the 1964 Olympics.
It estimates the operating cost at 294.3 billion yen (US$1.73 billion) for the Games to be held between August 12 and 28, 2016.
Fukuoka, the biggest city on Japan's southeastern island of Kyushu, had said that it would centre its Olympic facilities at three sites around the town. It has never hosted an Olympics.
Earlier this month, the selection committee issued a report evaluating the competing bids that local media have seen as favouring Tokyo.
The selection committee was made up of 25 JOC executive board members, along with 30 representatives from sports federations and the Japan Sports Association for the Disabled, according to the JOC.
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