Japan has been pretty open to using characters from popular fiction in the promotional campaign leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. At the closing ceremony for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe even ascended from a green pipe, dressed as Super Mario.

That push is continuing with the Japanese Olympic committee selecting a group of anime characters as official ambassadors for the 2020 Olympics, headed by Goku from Dragon Ball Z, Luffy from One Piece, and Naruto. They are backed by Sailor Moon, Crayon Shin-chan, girls from Pretty Cure, and Jibanyan from Yo-Kai Watch. As Konbini observes, featuring characters from Japanese pop culture is one way of focusing on a new younger audience, and fits in with Japan's new plans to incorporate anime into promotional tourism efforts going forward.

This of course, has resulted in official Tokyo 2020 merchandise featuring anime ambassadors at the official online shop.

This could make for some interesting theatrics at the 2020 Opening Ceremony.