The head of the International Olympic Committee inspectors evaluating bids for the 2016 Summer Games arrived in Japan on Tuesday ahead of her team's tour of Tokyo.

Nawal El Moutawakel, who chairs the IOC Evaluation Commission, was welcomed by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who is spearheading the capital's drive to host the Olympics.

The IOC panel chief and other members will begin a four-day inspection Thursday, including a tour of facilities being planned for the games. They will also be briefed on detailed plans by bidding committee officials.

The main feature of Tokyo's bid is that most competition venues are located within an 8-km radius in order to stage what the capital calls the "most compact Olympics in the world."

Tokyo has cleared the first hurdle of the IOC's screening process in the selection of candidate cities to host the 2016 Games and advanced to the final stage of voting scheduled for Oct. 2 in Copenhagen, where IOC members will cast ballots based on the evaluation commission's reports. Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are the other finalists.

IOC Evaluation Commission members have already visited Chicago and will tour Rio de Janeiro and Madrid following their stay in Tokyo.

Tokyo hosted the only Summer Olympics staged thus far in Japan in 1964. Sapporo held the 1972 Winter Games and Nagano the event in 1998.