3‑5

3 Information System Digital Media

Introduction History and Operational
Performance of the Infection Control BusinessSupport System “Tokyo 2020 ICON”TACHI Takeshi

USUI Akihisa

NAKAYASU Fumiaki

The Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 were held amid the lingering effects of the coronavirus disease 2019
This article reviews the development project and operational performance of the Infection Control Business Support
System (Tokyo 2020 ICON) which was introduced at short notice to implement entry procedures for the international
Games stakeholders in cooperation with the national government and the management of health conditions and screening
test results of the stakeholders and staff The primary users of Tokyo 2020 ICON were the managers in charge of theinfection control operation in each organization This article also analyzes the success factors and lessons learned in the
project to introduce the most extensively used digital tool in the Games operations
Keywords：Information system Personal information management

1．Launch of the Projectand how to prevent the outbreak of infectious disease
clusters during the GamesIt was expected that the number of participants in theOn the other hand when the decision was made to

Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 (herein-

postpone the Games (March 24 2020) only four months

after referred to as “Tokyo 2020 Games”) would reachwere left before the Games and the information systemseveral hundred thousand including athletes and sports

to be used in the Gamesʼ operations was almost

officials and Japanese and international broadcasting andcomplete There was a concern that implementing a

media personnel and officials from partner companies

completely new system design on a large scale and in

involved in preparations and operations of the Games

such a short period even for measures against infectious

Therefore studies began in the summer of 2020 during

diseases would entail significant risks to the stable

the postponement period of the Games in cooperation

operation of the entire information system and informa-with the national government to resolve issues such astion security governancemanaging the health condition of people visiting Japan

Thereforein considering the requirements for

infectious disease control operations in cooperation withthe government the concerned parties first agreed to
TACHI Takeshi
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesUSUI Akihisa
Technology Services Bureau The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic
and Paralympic GamesNAKAYASU Fumiaki
Games Delivery Office The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic andParalympic Gamesuse the design of the existing system infrastructure of

The Journal of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers Vol 105 No 8 Supplement pp 144‑150 August 2022

requirements and worked on the project© 2022 The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers

144

the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee (hereafterreferred to as the “Organising Committee”) as a base
Then we prepared a system for the agile developmentof an application that would meet the new operational
This article summarizes the project from its launch to

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

the performance achieved throughout the system

spectators coming to Japan to watch the games The

operation period

government and the Organising Committee agreed tocreate synergy by linking the back end of this application

2．Requirements Definition and Project
Structure
21

Main Functional Requirementswith a new information system to be developed by theOrganising Committee for the use of personnel in chargeof infection control operations in each organization
Expected synergy effects were : the government to meet

In the summer of 2020 shortly after the coronavirus

its immigration control requirements for the Tokyo 2020

pandemic began several event organizers and local

Games with a minimum of development effort andgovernments had already developed and introduced

operation by using the information system which issome trial applications that could contribute to prevent-developed by the Organising Committee

ing the occurrence of infectious disease clusters These

Organising Committee to meet its requirement of healthapplications can be used for officials and spectators

condition management of people involved in the Games(entering a specific venue or event) to input their healthby saving the effort in developing a separate end‑user

conditions information ahead of the events and manage

application and utilizing the government‑produced

them Referring to such cases the relevant sections ofapplication instead

the Organising Committee began to consider the related
requirements for the Tokyo 2020 GamesThe government was also planning to develop aand theBased on these backgrounds the functional requirements for the new system to be developed by theOrganising Committee were agreed upon as follows :) to manage all “Schedule of Activities in Japan (Note 1)”

smartphone application to confirm the health condition of(visitors during the immigration process not only forto be submitted by the international Games stakehold-those involved in the Games but also for overseas

ers (Figure 1) to manage the health condition and alert

Infection Control Business Support System Tokyo 2020 ICON

Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020145

Table 1

Main Functions of the Infection Control BusinessSupport System Tokyo 2020 ICON

No

Function name

Description

1

Management of
the Schedule ofActivities inJapan (Note 1)

The responsible manager in eachorganization submits the Schedule ofActivities in Japan required for entryof the members and the government
notifies the approval result accordinglyManagement of
Health Condition

Daily health condition which wasentered into a government‑developed
smartphone application is visualized to
the responsible managers in eachorganization and Infection Control
Centre Poor health condition andmissing information are automaticallydetected and alerted

2

3

4

5

Management of
Screening Test
Results

Management of
Incidents(Positive Test
Case)

Issuance of Negative Certificates

Results of screening test that theGames stakeholder and staff periodically taken are visualized to the
responsible managers in each organization and Infection Control Centre
Associated information of test‑positive persons (date of onset date of
test inpatient care facility close‑contacted person facilities visited etc )are recorded and shared with relevant
parties
Negative test certificates which arenecessary upon return to the homecountries are issued based on thelatest screening test results(Note 1) Schedule of Activities in Japan : Advance declaration of
the subjectʼs activity plan for the first 14 days after entry into
Japan including where to stay and where to go

In addition to the personal information of Games
stakeholders (passport numbers dates of birth andother information necessary for the issuance of accreditation cards) that has been managed by the Organising
Committee since past Games Tokyo 2020 ICON was
designed to handle more sensitive personal informationsuch as daily health information screening test results
and information on close contacts of the infected person
Consequently it was required to carefully study thesystem design

operationand rules for handlingpersonal information and deliberately explain the system
and associated operations to the concerned people andorganizations
Therefore it was clear that the Organising Committee needed to have a substantial structure to ensure thatthese requirements would be realized and the system
would be introduced by the deadline and operated
without significant incident
22

User Authentication Access Control etc

As a requirement for the government‑provided
smartphone application (OCHA) it was decided to
implement it as a native smartphone application toprevent user spoofing in the immigration process On
the other hand the government requirements which
need to be met by working with the Organising
Committee were first to ensure the identification ofGames stakeholders and to control the use of thefunction in the case of health abnormalities () toapplication so that it cannot be activated without prior) to manage

approval of the “Schedule of Activities in Japan” and toincidents (case of positive test results) These require-enable the application to recognize specific Gamesments were mainly from the managers responsible forstakeholders if their registration was cancelled for somethe infection control operation in each organization This

reasonmanage the screening test results (system was named Tokyo 2020 ICON (Infection
CONtrol)(Figure 1)

Tokyo 2020 ICON requires multi‑factor authentication for access due to the systemʼs feature which allows

In early July when Tokyo 2020 ICON was completely

authorized persons in charge of infection control

operational a possible problem of issuing a large volume

operations to access a large volume of personalof the new coronavirus negative test certificates

information in managing the daily health conditions of(hereinafter referred to as “negative certificates”) at

the members of each organization Furthermore it was

medical institutions was identified That is when thedesigned so that the highest authority level to access allnumber of international people involved in the Games

Games stakeholders and staff information is available

would return home simultaneously after the closing

only over a specific VLAN (Virtual Local Area

ceremony at the beginning of August the capacity of

Network) to strengthen security measures further

medical institutions in the city to perform tests and issue(administrator authority granted to the Organisingnegative certificates requested by the governments ofCommitteeʼs Infection Control Centre ) In addition data

their home countries was assessed as insufficient Then

encryption was implemented for particularly sensitivea fifth functional requirement to issue negative certifi-

data fields (e g screening test results)

cates by referring to the recorded latest test results wasadded to Tokyo 2020 ICON (see Table 1)
146

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

23

Project Structure

and other concerned organizations This framework and

The Organising Committee originally had a frame-

structure contributed to the successful completion of thework composed of the Software Factory and the Center

development project without rework even in a limitedof Excellence (CoE) for agile development and operation

period and under strict deadlinesof the numerous information systems required for the
Games operation Therefore it was most reasonable to

3．Operational Performance

significantly strengthen the existing framework fordeveloping Tokyo 2020 ICON at the start of this project

31

Major Results during the Operation Period

Also we decided to extend and use the database of theTokyo 2020 ICON was released in three phases inGames stakeholders and staff (named Participant

response to an increasing number of Games stakeholders

Database) for Tokyo 2020 ICON This is because thecoming to Japan for the Games (Table 2) All Games

database had already been constructed for different

stakeholders both Japanese and international werebusiness applications and all data were supposed to beregistered in Tokyo 2020 ICON for health management

registered in advance through the accreditation system

and incident management in the event of a positive test

In addition to collect and manage additional sensitive

result On the other hand the primary users of thepersonal information it was necessary to identify legal

system were managers responsible for infection control

requirements from the perspective of personal information protection and medical information management
and to define requirements and rules from the perspec-

Table 2

tive of system design and operation In parallel with theDatelaunch of the development project a study team was set
up consisting mainly of consultants with experience inTokyo 2020 ICON function release schedule
EventsRelease/Close function

Year 2021
May 31Primary
release

Release : management functionsof the Schedule of Activities inJapanJune 24

Secondaryrelease

Release : management functionsof health condition/management
functions of screening test results/management functions ofincidents

July 25

Additional
release

Release : issuance function of negative test certificate

August 11

System mode switch from Olympic to Paralympic
Games

September
12Part offunctions close

Close : function of submitting the
Schedule of Activities in Japanetc

September
20

Furtherfunctions close

Close : all functions for external
users

September
23

Complete system close

information system audits and the legal staff of theOrganising Committee (Figure 2) This team provided
advice on requirement definition and privacy policy
formulation and assistance for preliminary explanations
and coordination of business requirements with the IOC

Table 3Figure 2

Tokyo 2020 ICON Design and Development Structure

Tokyo 2020 ICON usage results

Item

ResultNumber of users

5 600 organizations registered
6 900 responsible managers for infection control registered

Immigration entry
handling

Approval of the Schedule of Activities in Japan for 14 000 cases or
65 000 persons

Health information
management

1 79 million cases or 69 000 persons

Screening Test Results

920 000

Incidents managed

1 300

Negative certificatesissued53 000Special Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020147

operations in each organization and those in the Infection

32

Control Centre of the Organising Committee and a total

Tokyo 2020 ICON was operated stably throughout theof 6 900 of these managers were registered A vast

entire operation period On the other hand there wasvolume of information was registered and managed

significant confusion due to the lack of prior explanation

Problems in Operation and Response to Themduring the operation period including 1 79 million healthabout related procedures to the Games stakeholders

management cases 920 000 test result management

Examples of this are the pre‑registration procedures forcases and 1 300 incidents (Table 3)

visitors to Japan which were also required in conjunction

The health management status of the Games stake-with the introduction of this new system and the user

holders and staff in each organization and the occurrence

authentication procedure when activating the smart-of positive screening results were visualized in real‑timephone application OCHA

using the dashboard function This was utilized by the

The number of visitors to Japan peaked in mid‑July

responsible managers in each organization and the(Figure 4) A little earlier than this peak in early July

Infection Control Centre for their work including thethe call centre began receiving many complaints thatstatus report given to the public (Figure 3)

OCHA could not be activated even after the necessary

Figure 3

Figure 4

148

Tokyo 2020 ICON Dashboard Screen

Trends in the Number of Entrants Based on the Schedule of Activities in JapanTHE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS

Figure 5

Trends in the Number of Cases Handled by the Dedicated Call Centre

information had been entered At its peak there was a

the accreditation cardbacklog of nearly 1 000 problem cases that remained

accreditation service counter by verifying the identity ofunresolved but an investigation revealed that about 80%

the person and correcting the data recorded Howeverof the problems were caused due to “user registration

when the same registered information is used for

not completed in advance”

Why this happened is

identification in online user authentication as in thisdescribed below Tokyo 2020 ICON needs to be set up incase the individual cannot easily correct information

advance so that the designated managers in charge ofthat is not correct on the spot In many cases theinfection control operations in each organization are

registration information could not be corrected in time

authorized to access the personal information of theirso the applicants needed to bring a separate article

members As some organizations have several thousand

document to prove that their application for entry had

members it is necessary to have multiple managers

already been approved

This was handled at thedesignated on a pre‑registration sheet and to clarify who
can access the personal information of which members in33

the organization

Operations at the Tokyo 2020 Games which were held

If the registration sheet was not

Lessons Learned and Areas for Improvement

completed the OCHA and Tokyo 2020 ICON could notin the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic were much

be linked resulting in many problems that prevented

more complicated than in past Games held under normal

OCHA from activating correctly

circumstances This includes the specialized procedures

In response to this emergency we reiterated theat the airport such as immigration inspection screening

necessity of pre‑registration to each organization andtests and handling of special vehicles for transportation

distributed an updated manual to make the registration

Despite such complexity the immigration procedures

process easier to understand We also modify the error

using OCHA correctly in conjunction with Tokyo 2020

message which is displayed when the pre‑registration

ICON were confirmed to be very smooth This was thewas not completed to be a more recognizable expres-case observed especially in the latter half of the Olympic

sion With these measures implemented the number ofGames period and during the Paralympic Games period

backlogs at the call centre reduced significantly (Figure

as the process had matured Although the preparation

5)

period was short it is regrettable that the confusion at
The final problem that required individual support

the beginning of the operational period could have been

was the inability to activate the application due to errors

avoided if more preliminary reviews and rehearsals fromin basic personal information (e gincorrect passport

the userʼs perspective had been conducted and if thenumber middle name) that each organization had pre‑improvement measures mentioned above had beenregistered in the accreditation system at the very

introduced earlier

beginning In past Games if there had been a mistake in

In addition we noticed that the information of thethe information registered it was dealt with by reissuingpeople involved in the Games and registered in theSpecial Issue : Technology and Innovation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020149

accreditation system could be a valuable database thatflexible development system

makes sense not only for infection control measures but

We would also like to take this opportunity to thankalso for various potential information services Consider-

the government officials who made a tremendous effort

ing that there are a certain number of people whoto establish rules and procedures for a large number ofcontinuously participate in multiple Games such asGames stakeholders coming to Japan under such difficult

Games and media officials if this information can be

circumstances as the coronavirus pandemic

taken over and fully utilized with the consent of eachindividual it could further improve the efficiency andserviceability of Games management through the use ofdigital tools For this purpose it would be desirable todevelop a Customer Relationship Management platform
for future Games that guarantees the accuracy ofregistered information and securely transfers or updates
the information from one Games to the next

4．Conclusion
The Tokyo 2020 Games held in the aftermath of thecoronavirus pandemic introduced and utilized more
new digital tools than any past Games including tools
other than Tokyo 2020 ICON discussed in this article
Examples include (1) a function added to the Games
information system (myInfo) to stream daily press
meetings and athlete interviews and (2) a reservation
system to avoid dense crowding and maintain social
distance in interview areas(Received February 28 2022 ; Revised March 10 2022)

TACHI Takeshi
Mr Tachi received his M S from Osaka
University in 1989 and his M S from the
University of California Berkeley in 1997 He
joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in 1989 where he was engaged in
the research and development of next‑generation I P networks and cyber security He has
been seconded to the Tokyo 2020 Organising
Committee since 2014 He is the Executive
Director of the Technology Services Bureau
Since July 2022 Senior Vice President General
Manager of IPES Business Division NTT
Advanced Technology Corporation
USUI Akihisa
USUI Akihisa graduated from Kumamoto
University with a bachelorʼs degree in engineering in 1995 and was transferred to theTechnology Service Bureau from Fujitsu Limited in March 2015 Since then he has been
engaged in governance formulation planning
development and operation of information
systems Before the Games he was the
Director of the Information Systems Department

Tokyo 2020 ICON which is the most extensively used
and largest‑scale system as well as the core tool of
infection control operations has achieved secure andstable operation despite its short development time
This was mainly due to the system platform including
the database of Games stakeholders that were already inplace as well as the presence of the Software Factoryand CoE that built and operated the system Although
we were unable to mention them in this article thanks tothe support from partners and suppliers involved in the
project we could promptly respond to requests forchanges from Games stakeholders even after the systemwent into complete operation We want to express our
gratitude for the efforts of all who have created such a

NAKAYASU Fumiaki
NAKAYASU Fumiaki graduated from the
University of Tokyo in 2001 with a bachelorʼs
degree in liberal arts He joined the Ministry of
Education Culture Sports Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as MEXT) in
the same year He has been engaged in theplanning and administration of MEXT (review
of “Yutori” education English in elementary
schools voting rights for 18‑year‑olds investment in national university ventures theestablishment of new medical schools after theearthquake etc ) He completed his MBA in2006 from the University of Texas ; seconded to
the Organising Committee (Director of Planning Department Deputy Director of the
Corporate Planning Office) After Tokyo 2020
he joined MEXT again as Director of Promoting
Vocational School Education㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇㍇

150

THE JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERS