The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee has received more than over 2,500 designs for a new logo, the selection panel's chairman said.

Organizers began accepting new submissions Nov. 24, and by 5:30 p.m. Monday, 2,559 had been received. Seeking a broad spectrum of ideas, the Emblem Committee attracted submissions from groups that include members under the age of 18, entries foreign residents and people in their 80s.

"It's a great pleasure to receive submissions from such a wide and varied range of applicants," Emblem Committee Chairman Ryohei Miyata said Monday after his group met for the sixth time. "I feel the enthusiasm is building."

The deadline for submissions is next Monday. The committee decided that after the applications are narrowed down to 100 to 200 candidates, the main selection process will begin around Jan. 7. No results will be published until trademark searches are concluded and trademark registrations checked.

Only 104 applications were accepted for the previous competition, which was restricted to designers who had won major awards. The winning submission by Kenjiro Sano was scrapped amid accusations of plagiarism.