The official countdown to the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games has begun as the Olympic torch relay began from Fukushima on Thursday after a delay of one year from the schedule.
The torch relay will pass through 859 cities and towns across Japan in 121 days.
It will reach the National Stadium in Tokyo on July 23, the day of the opening ceremony of the XXXII Olympiad and 2020 Summer Paralympics.
This will be the first Olympiad to be held during a pandemic from 23rd July to 8th August.
There will be no foreign spectators after the Tokyo 2020 organizers decided over the weekend to ban all visitors from overseas except participants.
Amid the concerns for COVID-19, Japan is trying to boost confidence in the delayed event.
Organizers are now racing to determine how Tokyo can stage the event safely, especially considering the capital only lifted its third state of emergency on Monday following a third wave of infections.
Despite the many setbacks, the Japanese government hopes the relay can turn around lagging public support for the Games.
According to recent opinion polls, most Japanese want the Games to be postponed again or cancelled due to fears that they will spark a new wave of Covid-19 infections.
The Olympic flame was lit in Greece on 12 March last year at a ceremony held without spectators.
On 24 March – just two days before the relay was due to start – the then Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and IOC head Thomas Bach agreed to delay the Games by a year.
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