Ticketholders for the Paralympics had until today to request their money back after the window opened on December 1, with refunds now expected to be paid from mid-January.

It follows on from a similar refund process for the Olympics, with that window closing on November 30 and refunds being made this month.

Tickets that were purchased and not requested for a refund remain valid for rescheduled events, while refund requests cannot be cancelled once submitted.

This process was undertaken following the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with both the Olympics and Paralympics pushed back a year.

Now, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are scheduled for July 23 to August 8 while the Paralympics are due to follow from August 24 to September 5.

The refund process is separate for ticketholders outside of Japan, who purchased tickets through authorised ticket resellers (ATR).

Each ATR has its own individual refund procedure.

Early figures from the refund process for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics stated that around 18 per cent of ticketholders for the Games requested a refund.

Around 4.48 million tickets were sold for the Olympics, with Tokyo 2020 revealing there had been 810,000 applications for refunds.

A total of 970,000 tickets were sold for the Paralympics.

Ticket sales for the Games are now suspended and organisers have said a further refund period may be possible depending on the development of the ongoing pandemic.