The organizing committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics decided on Wednesday to invite junior high school and high school students to get involved in the Games as volunteers. The decision was made because young people's involvement in an international event is likely to have a positive educational effect on them.
Picking up tennis balls and mopping basketball courts are among the envisaged roles the students will play, according to the committee. The committee is also considering having students play musical instruments to create an uplifting mood for spectators waiting in line at the entrances of game venues.
Taking security and other concerns into account, the committee will accept applications for such student volunteers apart from ordinary volunteers -- who must be 18 or older as of April 1, 2020.
The committee intends to consider the number of student volunteers, as well as details such as the period and process for applications.
On Wednesday, the committee also revealed a draft of application guidelines for a total of 80,000 volunteers for the Games. The draft will be scrutinized further and finalized guidelines will be announced in late July.
Those volunteers will engage in such activities as working as guides at venues and providing assistance to members of the media from around the world. They are required to work at least 10 days in total, for about eight hours each day. An applicant can choose three of nine activities they prefer to do as their work.
The Tokyo metropolitan government will also seek 30,000 volunteers of other types, chiefly to serve as guides at major train stations. Being able to work at least five days in total for about five hours each day is required for the applicants. The application period will begin in mid-September and run through early December. Interviews with applicants and orientation sessions will start in February next year and training for the volunteers will begin in October the same year.
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