TOKYO, Sept 10: A triumphant Tokyo governor Naoki Inose returned home to the cheers of thousands gathered in a plaza on Tuesday, thanking everyone for the support that brought the 2020 Olympic Games to Japan and vowing to get down to work to make them successful.

Inose vowed the return of the Olympic Games in 2020 — nearly half a century after Tokyo’s first games — will be a sports success and an economic boost to the nation as fans gathered outside the Tokyo metropolitan government building to welcome home members of the Tokyo bid team from the IOC meeting in Argentina.

Tokyo was chosen to host the games on Sunday, beating out Madrid and Istanbul.

Welcomed back by a brass band and a crowd gathered in front of the futuristic Tokyo Metropolitan Government building lit up in the Olympic colours as dusk fell, Inose said Tokyo’s success in its bid to host the Games for a second time was due to the enthusiasm at home.

“The voices and yells of support from Japan were heard in Buenos Aires and that’s what led to our getting the Games,” he said.

Inose said the games will be a chance to make new history for the nation, coming after years of economic sputtering, the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011, and the ongoing nuclear crisis that disaster touched off.

“It’s all ahead of us,” Inose told the crowd. “Let’s all pull together as a nation.”Later he told a news conference that now the city would have to get down to work to prepare for the world’s greatest sports extravaganza only seven years in the future.

“We need to make the 2020 Games the best ever,” he said. “So every Tokyo citizen needs to join together, with each person doing what they can according to their abilities.”

The city touted a $4.5 billion war chest in the bank and its ability to tap into the vast markets of Asia, as well as its reputation for getting things done, appeals that helped win over an IOC worried about delays for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro and difficulties with the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

But even as Japan savoured its success and anticipated still further economic benefits, questions remained about the nuclear reactor at Fukushima, where the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years was set off by a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the crippled reactor continues to leak water.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to make the 2020 Games an exceptional event for the world’s top athletes, as his government eyes a haul of 30 golds.Ministers are preparing to set up an agency to boost resources for Japanese athletes, aiming to nearly double the previous gold total, reports and officials said.“As the host country Japan must take it upon itself to help the top athletes from around the world perform their best,” Abe told a special cabinet meeting on the Olympic preparations.

The premier pitched for Tokyo’s bid when the International Olympic Committee met in Buenos Aires on Saturday and chose the Japanese capital over Madrid and Istanbul as the 2020 Olympic host.

“It (Tokyo 2020) will also be a golden opportunity for Japan to show the world how it has re-covered from the Great East Japan Earthquake,” he added. —Agencies