The designer of the emblem for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games said Wednesday that he was "shocked" and "pained" that a Belgian theater logo designer had accused him of plagiarism.
Kenjiro Sano, a 43-year-old Japanese art director, told a packed news conference in Tokyo that his Olympic emblem, unveiled last month after winning an international competition featuring 104 applicants, was completely his own.
"I put all of my knowledge and experience as an artistic director" into creating the logo, Sano said. "I was shocked and found it hard to accept, to be honest. But I've never been to Belgium, nor seen the logo even once."