Use of advanced technologies touted as legacy of Tokyo Games

While this summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics took place without being hit by major incidents such as a terrorist attack thanks to the unprecedented scale of security operations by police and the Games' organizing committee, an expert touted the use of cutting-edge technologies, including a facial recognition system, as well as public-private cooperation as a legacy from the events. The Tokyo Games organizing committee formed a joint venture of 553 security service companies from around Japan, with up to 14,000 personnel mobilized per day to guard the athletes village and competition venues. About 59,900 police officers were gathered from police departments from across the country, including those belonging to Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department. A facial recognition system was used for the first time in Olympic and Paralympic history for personal identification of athletes and staff officials entering the athletes village, match venues and other places related to the Tokyo Games. More than 300 face recognition devices for the system, developed by Japanese electronics giant NEC Corp., were installed.