Those who were not among the lucky 960,000 who were allocated tickets to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the first domestic lottery in May will get another shot in the second-chance draw which opened early Thursday.
The registration period runs until 11:59 a.m. on Aug. 19, and winners will be announced on Sept. 11, the organizers said. The second-chance lottery is only open to the approximately 4.16 million residents of Japan who were unsuccessful in the initial draw.
While heavy traffic to the official website slowed the online application process when organizers launched the lottery for the first phase on May 9, this time the process ran smoothly, they said.
Applicants can sign in using the same ID, but those who did not enter the first draw or who won at least one ticket will be automatically disqualified.
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About 7.5 million residents of Japan registered online for the official IDs required to make a ticket application and 5.12 million took part in the first-round lottery, but millions were left disappointed when results were announced June 20.
There will be about 680,000 tickets made available for the supplementary lottery, and these include 170 sessions in 20 of the 33 sports such as soccer, baseball, basketball and hockey.
Lottery participants can only apply for one session, with a maximum four tickets for a medal session and up to six tickets for other sessions.
The second phase lottery, for those who did not enter the first or second-chance rounds, will be held this fall.
Remaining tickets will be sold at booths across Tokyo next spring, and there will be two rounds of lottery ticket sales for the Paralympics, one this month and the other in the winter.
People outside of Japan will be able to buy tickets through Authorized Ticket Resellers, the official sales channels appointed by the respective National Olympic Committees.
