It may be more than half a century since Tokyo last hosted an Olympic Games but the Japanese capital appears to be well ahead of its rivals as it enters the final straight.

Venues are largely complete and suitable, the organisational side appears to be ticking over nicely and there's even a brilliant logo - although it's not the official one.

Fortunately, growing fears that everything might proceed swimmingly have been quashed by a few timely drug scandals, weather and scheduling concerns, some traditional grumbles about controversial new sports and a rather unpopular late venue change.

Two experienced Launceston officials are well credentialed to pass comment on Tokyo's efforts.

Ian Chesterman will be Australia's chef de mission at the Summer Games, having previously filled the same role six times at Winter Games, while Brian Roe will be attending his seventh Olympics as a World Athletics official.

Both report an impressive performance with Roe commenting: "They are very well placed - unlike Athens where they were still laying bitumen when I arrived for the first day of the athletics or Rio which was only really ready in time for the Paralympics a month later."

In the last few weeks quota spots have been gradually allocated in handball, shooting, baseball, rugby sevens, modern pentathlon, surfing and a host of other sports the mainstream media ignores for 206 weeks of each 208-week Olympic cycle.

But just when everything seemed rosy in the Japanese garden, controversy swept in like an unforecast typhoon.

Last month came the announcement that the marathon and race walking will all involve an additional 800 kilometres. Bit tough on the competitors that.

Organisers feared a repeat of this year's world championships when 28 athletes withdrew from the women's marathon in Doha due to extreme heat, despite the race beginning at midnight.

The backlash saw prospective Launceston Olympians Milly Clark and Jake Birtwhistle call the move "stupid" and "ridiculous", with the latter pointing out that Japan is the Land of the Rising Sun so some degree of morning sunlight should not be a major surprise.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government proposed a solution of holding the events at either 3am or 5am to ensure they took place in the capital instead of Sapporo.

But senior International Olympic Committee official John Coates responded by stating the decision was final, will not be revisited and had been made with the "health and welfare of the athletes in mind" - although it clearly didn't do much for the health and welfare of Clark and Birtwhistle.

Games officials throughout the years will testify that whatever issues host cities may have with venues, drugs and schedules count for nothing as long as the event logo is OK.

And on the face of it, the one designed by Daren Newman ticks every box.

Craftily working both the date and Japanese flag into the Olympic rings, it restores faith in bow-tie-wearing designers after the catastrophe of the epilepsy-inducing London 2012 logo.

Sadly, Newman's design is not the official Games logo and breaches several Olympic taboos about tampering with the sacrosanct rings.

The real logo looks like a dropped deck of cards with the Paralympic version likened to the half-destroyed Death Star from The Empire Strikes Back.

October marked the 55th anniversary of the last time the Olympic circus rolled into Tokyo.

Back then the Games featured 19 sports, as opposed to 33 next year, while Australia's team has grown from 253 athletes to an expected 480.

The 1964 Olympics were also the first time South Africa was barred from taking part due to apartheid.

If only modern organisers were as tough on drug cheats as their predecessors were on racists.

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