In another humiliating reversal over preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the organizing committee on Tuesday scrapped the official logo after critics howled plagiarism.

The committee said it would immediately launch a competition to design a new logo but underscored that it did not decide to pull the first emblem because it believes designer Kenjiro Sano is guilty of any wrongdoing.

"We thought it might be difficult to get support from the general public" given the size that the issue has become, Toshiro Muto, director general of the organizing committee, said after an emergency meeting.