The head of the International Olympic Committee inspectors evaluating bids for the 2016 summer games arrived in Japan on April 14 ahead of her team's tour of Tokyo.

Nawal El Moutawakel, who chairs the IOC Evaluation Commission, was welcomed by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who is spearheading the capital's drive to host the Olympics.

The main feature of Tokyo's bid is that most competition venues are located within an 8-km radius in order to stage what the capital calls the "most compact Olympics in the world."

Tokyo has cleared the first hurdle of the IOC's screening process in the selection of candidate cities to host the 2016 games and advanced to the final stage of voting scheduled for Oct. 2 in Copenhagen, where IOC members will cast ballots based on the evaluation commission's reports. Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are the other finalists.