Together with the publishing of the " Olympic News," the designing of posters, marks, and seals was considered to be the important work of the Publicity Section. With the co-operation of the Union Japonaise des Artes et des Sports, it was decided that various designs for the posters, marks, and seals be chosen by conducting prize contests.

The designs submitted totalled 102,113 and the winner of the first prize chosen as the result of the final decision on July 5th was Mr. Taiji Hiromoto. The winning design was selected to be the Official Olympic mark.

In response to the first notification of the contest for Olympic posters, 1,211 copies were submitted and the second notification brought 781, making a total of 1,992 different posters. After careful and selective judgement, the following artists were considered the winners:

                                         1st Prize        Norio Kuroda
                                         2nd               Fumio Yamana
                                         2nd               Kiichi Akabane
                                         3rd               Kiyosumi Kato
                                         3rd               Kazu Wakita
                                         3rd               Kan-ichi Arakawa

Due to minor opposition to the first selected poster design, the Publicity Section requested Mr. Sanzo Wada to draw a design for the poster of the XIIth Olympic Games and Mr. Usaburo Ihara to design the poster for the Winter Games. The official seals and marks, letter heads, envelopes, and flags were registered at the patent office for the exclusive use of the Olympic Organizing Committee.
 

(Source document:  Official Report 1940,  page 115)