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TOKYO: Tokyo 2020 organizers said yesterday they will press ahead with a nationwide, socially distanced torch relay - 100 days before the Olympic flame begins its coronavirus-delayed journey around Japan. Despite a recent spike in infections, Games officials believe the relay can be held safely-and in front of spectators-with around 10,000 runners carrying the torch around Japan's 47 prefectures. The torch relay was postponed just two days before it was due to begin earlier this year when the decision was taken to delay the Games by 12 months because of the pandemic.
Now it will start on March 25, 2021, with Olympic officials to lay out detailed anti-virus measures in the coming weeks. "We want to make sure that everyone's health is secure-the spectators, the torchbearers, the officials and the citizens in the local areas," said Tokyo Games Vice-Director General Yukihiko Nunomura. "We want the runners to smile and we want the spectators to smile as they welcome the torch. We want to generate excitement so that people really feel that the Tokyo Olympics are coming."
The announcement comes after a poll released earlier Tuesday by national broadcaster NHK showed a majority of Japanese people oppose holding the Games next year, favoring another delay or cancellation of the massive event. Japan has seen a relatively small Covid-19 outbreak overall, but has been battling record numbers of new cases in recent weeks.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Monday suspended a controversial domestic tourism campaign and urged residents to reconsider New Year travel plans. Guidelines on whether Olympic torchbearers will need to wear masks have not yet been issued, but this month an interim report said participants will be told to keep their distance and refrain from talking loudly.
Local celebrations
The Olympic flame, which had already arrived in Japan from Greece when the relay was postponed, is currently on display in Tokyo. Starting in the Fukushima region-which was hit by nuclear disaster after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami-it will crisscross Japan before arriving in Tokyo for the July 23 opening ceremony. Organizers announced some minor changes to the relay route yesterday, but reaffirmed their commitment to visiting every part of the country. "We hope that the power of the torch relay can be exposed to as big an audience as possible," said Nunomura. "We also will be providing online opportunities for people to watch the torch go around Japan, and we will be sharing that with the entire world."
Torchbearers who were selected for the original relay will be invited back next year, although Tokyo 2020 chiefs acknowledged not everyone will be able to do so. The relay will visit 859 municipalities around Japan, with a local celebration welcoming the flame to be held at the end of each day. Organizers announced changes to several celebration venues, with festivities set to be simplified in a bid to cut costs. The postponement of the Games has added at least an extra $2.4 billion to an already outsized budget, set last year at around $13 billion.
Cancelling Olympics?
Meanwhile, Tokyo's governor said she can see "no circumstances" under which the virus-postponed 2020 Olympics will be cancelled, despite rising coronavirus infections in Japan and continued public scepticism. In an interview with AFP, Yuriko Koike warned that the fate of the Tokyo Games would impact future Olympics, including the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing and the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. She acknowledged that a majority of the Japanese public now opposes hosting the Games next year, but said she was convinced those concerns could be overcome.
"The Japanese public and Tokyo residents are looking at the current conditions," Koike said yesterday. "We are preparing for the future." The 2020 Games are the first to be postponed during peacetime, and organizers and officials have been at pains to insist that they can go ahead next year. A further postponement has been ruled out by Olympic and Japanese officials, and Koike said "there are no circumstances" under which she could envisage the Games being cancelled.
"Citizens of the world are seeing the Tokyo Games as a symbol that humanity will have defeated the coronavirus, that will lead to the Beijing Winter Games and then the Paris Games after that," she said. "Unless Tokyo takes full efforts against the coronavirus, then what will happen to Paris four years from now?" she said. "I think we have to make Tokyo a success first, otherwise it will leave a serious impact on Paris."
Domestic opinion appears at odds with the confident tones sounded by Japanese officials and organizers. A poll released yesterday by national broadcaster NHK found just 27 percent of respondents support holding the Games next year, with 32 percent backing cancellation and 31 percent favoring a further postponement.- Agencies
