The 2020 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony took place on 24 August 2021 at the

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. The theme of the opening ceremony was "Moving Forward: We Have Wings" and thus surrounded around the theme of aviation, airplanes, airports, and everything that involved air travel.

Weather conditions

* 20:00 temperature humidity 69% * 23:00 temperature humidity 80% * At the observation point, it rained at each hour of 20:00, 22:00, and 23:00 to the extent that an hourly rainfall of 0 (mm) was recorded.

Venue

Thomas Bach Emperor Naruhito Yoshihide Suga and Yuriko Koike cropped Yoshihide Suga 20210824 2

The

Japan National Stadium The Japan National Stadium, officially named and formerly known as or , is a multi-purpose stadium used mostly for association football in Kasumigaoka, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The facility served as the main stadium for the opening and c ...

, also referred to as the Olympic Stadium, served as the main stadium for the opening ceremony. The stadium will also serve as the main stadium for the closing ceremony, and the athletics/track and field events.

Parade of nations

In the announcement of the Refugee Paralympic Team, it was stated that the team would enter first in the parade of nations. The rest of the countries entered in the Japanese

Gojūon In the Japanese language, the is a traditional system ordering kana characters by their component phonemes, roughly analogous to alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the ...

alphabetical order, with the last three teams being the United States, France, and Japan as the current host of the Paralympics as the final team and the next two hosts being Los Angeles 2028 and Paris 2024, so the United States and France entered as the final two teams before the Japanese team. Unlike the Olympics, Greece does not enter at the start of the parade, but instead follows the regular alphabetical order. After the parade of nations, there is a welcome greeting to the Para Airport.

Performers

Japanese pianist

Nobuyuki Tsujii (also known as Nobu Tsujii) is a Japanese pianist and composer. He was born blind due to microphthalmia. Tsujii performs extensively, with a large number of conductors and orchestras, and has received critical acclaims as well as notices for h ...

was among the musicians who participated in the Opening Ceremony, although not in person. A recording of a composition by him ("House of Wind"), performed with an orchestra, was played while the flag of Japan was carried on stage. 13 year old Yui Wago performed the role of the 'Little One-Winged Plane'. The announcers at all ceremonies were Mai Shoji (English) and Hiroyuki Sekino (Japanese).

Flame

Dignitaries in attendance

Andrew Parsons Emperor Naruhito Yoshihide Suga Yuriko Koike and Seiko Hashimoto cropped Yoshihide Suga 20210824 1

Host country dignitaries

* – **

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Naruhito is the current Emperor of Japan. He acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne on 1 May 2019, beginning the Reiwa era, following the abdication of his father, Akihito. He is the 126th monarch according to Japan's traditional order of succession. ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Yoshihide Suga is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2020 to 2021. He had served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fro ...

** Tokyo governor

Yuriko Koike is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 until 2016, when she resigned to ...

**Minister of State for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games

Tamayo Marukawa is a Japanese politician and former announcer of TV Asahi, who serves as a member of the House of Councillors of the National Diet (parliament of Japan). She is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. She served as the head of the Women's A ...

** Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan

Katsunobu Katō is a Japanese politician who serves as the Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare since August 2022, previously serving from from 2019 to 2020 and from 2017 to 2018. He also served as Chief Cabinet Secretary from 2020 to 2021. Belonging to the ...

Dignitaries from international organizations

* –

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Andrew Parsons * –

Thomas Bach Thomas Bach (born 29 December 1953) is a German lawyer, former Olympic foil fencer and Olympic gold medalist, serving as the ninth and current president of the International Olympic Committee since 10 September 2013. He is also a former memb ...

Dignitaries from abroad

* – Presidential Advisor for the Participation of Persons with Disabilities

Jairo Clopatofsky Jairo Raúl Clopatofsky Ghisays (born 20 October 1961) is a Colombian politician. A Party of the U politician, Clopatofsky had served in the Congress of Colombia, as Senator and as Representative for the Capital District, and most recently as t ...

* –

Korean Paralympic Committee Korean Paralympic Committee (KPC) () is a National Paralympic Committee (NPC) of South Korea. The committee was established on May 12, 2006, and is recognized by International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and Asian Paralympic Committee (APC). ...

president Lee Myung-ho * – Second Gentleman

Doug Emhoff Douglas Craig Emhoff (born October 13, 1964) is an American lawyer who is the second gentleman of the United States. He is married to the 49th vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris. As the first-ever husband of a vice president, Em ...

Anthems

National anthem of Japan is the national anthem of Japan. The lyrics are from a ' poem written by an unnamed author in the Heian period (794–1185), and the current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed by John William Fenton eleven years e ...

– Hirari SatoPARALYMPICSOpening Ceremony Delivers Aspirational, Upbeat Performance
/ref> *

Paralympic Hymn The Paralympic symbols are the icons, flags, and symbols used by the International Paralympic Committee to promote the Paralympic Games. Motto The Paralympic motto is "Spirit in Motion". The motto was introduced in 2004 at the Paralympic Games ...

Ceremony key team

''Source:''

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2020 Summer Paralympics Opening Ceremony

Opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

Ceremonies in Japan Paralympics opening ceremonies