Tokyo inaugurates National Stadium ahead of 2020 Olympics

The new National Stadium in Tokyo was inaugurated on Sunday, six months ahead of the Olympic Games here and it will be used for the first time during the Emperor's Cup final next month.

With its 68,000-seat capacity and design details that highlight Japan's taste for nature, the stadium was inaugurated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe three months after construction started, reports Efe news.

It cost around $1.44 billion to build, slightly under budget. The original proposal for the new stadium was rejected for being too expensive.

Abe said the venue would "leave its mark on history".

The opening ceremony was also attended by the architect behind the project, Kengo Kuma.

It was built on the ground where the old Olympic stadium stood that was used for the 1964 Games. The National Stadium will host the opening and closing ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as athletics competitions.

On a press tour, representatives of the team responsible for building the venue said they had used the natural world as inspiration for its design.

The seats are painted in five different colours spread around at random and represent an impressionist depiction of a forest.