The cut-off point for applications had been set for 11:59pm Japanese time today.

But Tokyo 2020 have decided to push it back to 11:59am Japanese time tomorrow owing to the "high volume of traffic seen today on the official ticketing website and in anticipation of even more visitors in the coming hours".

"We recommend those interested in tickets apply as soon as possible," Tokyo 2020 added in a statement.

Organisers of next year's Games had been inundated with requests for Olympic Games tickets when the lottery was launched on May 9 and the ticketing website struggled from the moment it opened to online applications.

Tokyo 2020 said earlier this month that "more than two million" people had registered with the Games ticketing site before the launch of the lottery.

The Organising Committee later confirmed more than 4.8 million people had registered.

The results of the domestic lottery will be announced on June 20, a week after a new law prohibiting ticket scalping comes into effect.

Those who are not lucky come June will still be able to request tickets during the first-come, first-served phase, scheduled to commence in autumn 2019.

A further phase of ticket sales will also start in spring of 2020, offering first-come, first-served sales on a global basis.