A barge carrying the Olympic Rings floats in the water near the Rainbow Bridge, Jan 17, 2020, in the Odaiba district of Tokyo. (JAE C HONG / AP)

TOKYO — A giant Olympic symbol, the five rings, was installed Friday morning at Tokyo's landmark waterfront and will be officially lighted when the Tokyo Olympic Games is six months to go next week.

The five rings are made of steel and will be installed until August 9, when the Olympic Games is closed

The Olympic Symbol, which is 32.6 meters wide and 15.3 meters high and weighs 69 tons, was brought by a salvage barge to the Tokyo Bay and installed in the waters of Odaiba Marine Park, with the landmark Rainbow Bridge a few hundred meters behind.

The five rings are made of steel and will be installed until August 9, when the Olympic Games is closed. It will be replaced with a Paralympic Symbol, the three agitos, in Mid-August.

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"This is one of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's key initiatives for dressing up the city to build up a festive atmosphere for residents, visitors and spectators around the world," the organizers said.

A barge carrying the Olympic Rings floats in the water, Jan 17, 2020, in the Odaiba district of Tokyo. (JAE C HONG / AP)

The symbol will be officially inaugurated on the evening of 24 January, exactly six months before the opening of the Olympics with the first lighting of the monument and celebratory fireworks.

Kenichi Kimura, who is in charge of the project for Tokyo 2020, said that the installation of the five rings is a message to the world that Tokyo is ready for the Olympic Games.

"Tokyo's waterfront is a well-known landmark worldwide," he said. "Everybody can see it."

He added that no decision had been made about where the monument will be moved after the Olympic Games.