Sports critics heaped praise while members of the public were divided over the two proposed designs for the new National Stadium.

"The proposals are similar," Hiroshi Yamamoto, a professor of sports media at Tokyo's Hosei University, said of the "technical proposals" released by the Japan Sport Council on Monday. "I think they became similar after the selection process was started all over and desirable features were narrowed down."

The two anonymous documents, submitted to a tender process to select the design for the main venue of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, are both titled, "stadium in a forest," and share similar total construction costs and completion dates.