The Sochi Olympics will begin on February 7th, five hours behind Japan. While it may be difficult to watch the games live, there are now apps available to enjoy the Olympics anytime, anywhere.

gorin.jp, the official online Olympic video streaming site operated by 132 commercial broadcasters and launched with the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is now offering a free smartphone app. In addition to streaming video playback and video search functions, the app also features a program alarm notification function that allows you to register events and athletes you want to watch. It also features news and columns.

NHK's free official app, "NHK Sochi Olympics Full Support!", allows you to watch the event schedule, highlight videos, and live streaming, and even replay from the beginning, even in the middle of an event. Broadcast schedules for terrestrial digital, BS, and radio are also clearly displayed at a glance.


The official app for the "Nippon! Call" project, which transforms cheers collected from all over Japan into flames and songs to be sent to athletes, is also now available. Just follow the instructions in the app and shout "Nippon!" to send your cheers to Sochi. Volleyball player Motoko Obayashi, hammer thrower Koji Murofushi, and marathon runner Naoko Takahashi are among the participants, and there's also an "Olympian Voice Ranking" where voices are ranked based on how similar they are to the average voice.