The torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics started Thursday at the J-Village soccer facility in Fukushima Prefecture, with about 10,000 torchbearers set to carry the flame through 859 municipalities across the country in a 121-day tour.
The ultimate destination will be the National Stadium in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, where the torch will be used to light the stadium's cauldron during the Games' opening ceremony on July 23.
In the initial plan before the decision in March last year to postpone the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, the starting ceremony for the torch relay was to have been attended by about 3,000 spectators at the facility, which straddles the towns of Naraha and Hirono. However, to prevent overcrowding, no spectators were allowed at Thursday's ceremony, which was conducted in a shorter time than originally planned.
Fifteen present and former players of women's national soccer team Nadeshiko Japan, plus former coach Norio Sasaki, stood in front of a flaming cauldron. They were selected to start the relay in honor of having won Japan's first World Cup in July 2011, four months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, a triumph that encouraged the whole country.
Representing the team, Azusa Iwashimizu lit the 71-centimeter, 1.2-kilogram torch, which has a cross-section shaped like a cherry blossom. About 160 people in attendance clapped their hands but refrained from vocal cheering. When the torchbearers started running at 9:41 a.m., while keeping their distance, the applause became louder.
The Games' organizing committee has asked people to watch the event only in the prefecture where they reside. It has also requested that people wear masks, keep a distance from each other and not shout when they watch the event by the roadside.
If overcrowding takes place along the road, the committee will consider canceling that section of the relay. Also, should there be another declaration of a state of emergency or request to refrain from going out, relays sections on public roads will be canceled and related ceremonies of local governments may be held without spectators.
About 600 celebrity torchbearers will run in stadiums and other venues where the number of spectators can be limited to avoid crowding.
The torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, in March last year and arrived in Japan on a special plane. However, due to the coronavirus outbreak, the decision to postpone the Games came two days before the planned start of the torch relay. The flame was kept in a lantern at a Tokyo facility and has been on display in various locations since September.
The relay will be carried out over three-day spans in each of the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, which were hit hard by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It will also spend three days each in Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures, which are home to multiple stadiums. In all other prefectures except for Tokyo, the relay will take place for two days each, while in Tokyo it will last for 15 days.
"This is a precious opportunity for people to feel that the Olympic and Paralympic Games are approaching," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday. "I would like to see the momentum build up among people in each region."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
