Paralympic flames of the 2020 Tokyo Games will be lit in more than 700 municipalities across the nation, according to the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
According to the outline of the Tokyo Paralympic torch relay announced Friday, more than 700 municipalities in 47 prefectures will use their own methods of making flames for the Paralympic torch in a bid to show the diversity of the Paralympic Games.
The torch relay, featuring about 1,000 runners, will be held in August in Tokyo and Shizuoka, Chiba and Saitama prefectures, the venues for the Paralympics. The committee said it will open applications for the torchbearers on Wednesday.
The Olympic torch is supposed to be lit in Olympia, southern Greece, but the Paralympic Games are allowed to be lit in various ways.
More than 700 municipal governments nationwide responded to the organizing committee's call for participation. The specific method of making the flames will be decided next spring. Some municipalities could adopt fires kindled at local festivals.
There is an example in past Paralympic Games of virtual flames being "collected" using smartphone apps.
Regional flame-lighting cerebrations will be held starting Aug. 13. Torch relays will be held in Tokyo and Shizuoka, Chiba and Saitama prefectures from Aug. 18-21.
Flames from all over the nation and Britain, the spiritual birthplace of the Paralympic Movement, will be merged into a single Paralympic flame in Tokyo on the night of Aug. 21. The torch relay carrying the flame will take place in 18 wards and cities in Tokyo.
'Light of hope'
The more than 700 municipalities will consider ways to kindle flames, taking advantage of local characteristics.
Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, which was devastated by the tsunami following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, is considering using a flame from a gas-flame monument named "3.11 light of hope," the symbol of recovery from the disaster, and a "miracle pine tree" that survived the tsunami.
The Miyagi prefectural government, which aims to realize a recycling-oriented society, plans to work with a group of researchers at Tohoku University for the use of biogas produced from leftover school lunches as fuel to light a fire.
Oita Prefecture, for its part, plans to conduct a ceremony of merging flames at Beppu after carrying flames collected at its 18 cities, towns and villages.
Beppu is the birthplace of the late doctor Yutaka Nakamura, who played the key role as head of the Japanese team at the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 1964. He is known as a founder of the social welfare corporation Japan Sun Industries in the city.
"It is a great pleasure for me and my fellow workers at Japan Sun Industries to see the fire gathering taking place in Beppu, where [Mr. Nakamura] is associated," Japan Sun Industries President Tatsuo Yamashita said.
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