Have You Met Tokyo’s Olympic Mascots Miraitowa and Someity?

Those days mascots are always welcoming visitors to a sporting event and to enhance the excitement of children and adult fans alike. They make the games memorable, even long after they have concluded. 

Meet Miraitowa and Someity, the mascots for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Miraitowa and Someity, this year’s mascots, are meant to be embodiments of both Japanese culture and the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic games.

Miraitowa is the official mascot of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Its name is based on the Japanese words ‘future’ (Mirai) and ‘eternity’ (Towa), according to Olympic Design, and its body and head contain a blue indigo ichimatsu-pattern resembling the Tokyo 2020 Games Emblem.
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Miraitowa is an amalgamation of respect for tradition and cutting-edge information.

Someity is the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games mascot. Its name is derived from the popular cherry tree variety “Someiyoshino” and the English phrase “so mighty”. It has large anime eyes and accents reminiscent of the sakura cherry blossom. It is sometimes depicted in a wheelchair. This mascot has several superpowers.

Both characters have an anime style and are extremely athletic – they participate in every event, from basketball and tennis to archery, kayaking, and horseback riding. The two are friends. They live in a digital world but can transfer themselves to the real world via the internet.
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Tokyo 2020’s cutesy Olympic mascots are plastered across the host city, but they have competition in mascot-mad Japan.

Adorable creatures always give a friendly face to businesses, and the most successful have full-on celebrity status. And mascots can make big money.

The first mascot was featured in the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France, according to the Olympics. Designed by Aline Lafargue, the character named Schuss had a two-colored head positioned on a zig-zag shaped foot. It was not an official mascot but was an original. The first official mascot for the Olympics was featured in 1972  in Munich when a dachshund called Waldi became the first official Games mascot. Since then, each host country has invented its own character symbolizing Olympic values and aspects of cultural heritage.