Tokyo was picked over Fukuoka on Wednesday as Japan's candidate to bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and will move on to the international competition, local press said.

Among the 55 votes from the selection committee, which is composed of Japanese Olympic Committee(JOC) officials and representatives from domestic sports federations, Tokyo got 33 while Fukuoka won the remaining 22, Kyodo News said.

Tokyo had been considered the favorite since the two cities handed their bid to IOC in July.

Tokyo has announced in its bidding plans that it eyes to stage "the most compact Olympics in the world." The metropolitan government aims to arrange most of the competition at venues located within a radius of 10 kilometers from the central part of the city.

The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city for the 2016 Games in October 2009 in Copenhagen.

Japan has hosted Olympic Games for three times. Tokyo hosted the Summer Games in 1964 and Sapporo and Nagano hosted the Winter Games respectively in 1972 and 1998.

Source: Xinhua