Tokyo Olympic torch relay begins after one year of coronavirus virus

The Tokyo Olympic Torch Relay was closed late on Thursday and without a year-long audience, a major step towards the start of the coronovirus-delayed games on 23 July. A rose-gold, cherry blossom-shaped Olympic torch was lit on J-. The Village Sports Complex in Fukushima, which served as a base for operations in response to the 2011 nuclear disaster. Speaking at the launch ceremony, Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hashimoto said he hoped the Olympic flame would serve as a “ray of light at the end of darkness”.

“This little flame never lost hope and waited to this day as if the cherry blossom bud is just about to bloom,” she said.

Like the Olympics, the nationwide relay will be significantly different from previous editions, in which viewers were banned from cheering and kept away from launch and the first step was taken on coronovirus concerns.

Fans can cross the country and trek Jyoti, passing 10,000 runners and all 47 provinces before reaching Tokyo’s National Stadium for the opening ceremony on July 23.

But parts of the relay can be suspended if too many spectators gather in one place, and masks are mandatory for the audience.

The organizers were making final preparations for the relay last year when Coronovirus made the historic decision to postpone the games, as the game was in a standstill around the world.

A year later, the epidemic is still in full swing despite the vaccine rollout, and the organizers are struggling with public skepticism about holding the Olympics in Japan.

Riley is seen as an important opportunity to create excitement for foreign audiences, with sports and limiting the possibility on domestic fans.

“The purpose of the torch relay is to organize the Olympic Games,” Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto told reporters this week.

“This makes people think that the games are about to start – that’s the nature of the torch relay.”

“Recovery Olympics”

The relay launch will put the spotlight back on the area affected by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

The game began as the “Recovery Olympics”, which marks the reconstruction in the northeastern region of Theoku, devastated by earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear meltdowns a decade earlier.

The epidemic has seen that message, but Fukushima’s torchbearers still hope that Riley will shine a positive light in the region.

“From afar, Fukushima may seem like a place where time stands still,” Hanne Noziri, the TV reporter who will be one of the torture, told AFP before the relay.

“But when people see the spectators running on the streets and the passion of the runners, I think they will update their image of the place.”

The relay will pass through some towns that will only be partially open to the public, as refinements continue in radiation-affected areas.

And some residents are unclear about the Olympics.

“It is annoying if we are going to be used for some kind of publicity for the games”, Yeogaki Suda, the mayor of Onagawa city in Miyagi region, said recently.

Others are more curious, with Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori saying that the torch will “connect people all over Japan” on Thursday.

“Reconstruction games are very special for people living in Fukushima. We want to show the energy of today’s Fukushima to the world.”

The relay will take a winding route, first heading south towards the islands of Okinawa, before reversing course for the northern region of Hokkaido and finally back to Tokyo.

The flame will pass landmarks including Mount Fuji and Hiroshima City Peace Memorial Park.

However, there are still challenges ahead for the organizers.

Several dozen torchbearers have been excluded, citing issues including periodic conflicts and concerns about coronoviruses.

Officials in one area have warned that if the virus countermeasures have not improved, they can cancel the relay there.

But the organizers hope that the event will provide relief after a difficult year.

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“People are feeling disconnected from each other at the moment,” Hashimoto said on Wednesday.

“These 10,000 runners can connect with people from everywhere.”