Tokyo 2020: Amid coronavirus outbreak, Olympic flame passed to Fukushima in low-key ceremony

Since Tokyo 2020 has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, the organisers left the Olympic flame in the hands of Fukushima Prefecture where it will be on display in a lantern for the next month. The Tokyo Olympics will now take place from July 23 to August 8, 2021.

The flame will stay on display until April 30 before being moved to Tokyo. Organisers have not yet decided where in the Japanese capital it will be displayed.

The handover took place at a subdued ceremony at the J-Village National Training Centre in Fukushima, which was to be the starting point of the torch relay. Only Tokyo 2020 COO Yukihiko Nunomura made the trip north from the organising committee.

"This is a (symbol of) hope for the world to celebrate the best of human beings through Tokyo 2020 after we overcome the serious coronavirus,” Nunomura said at the start of the ceremony, Reuters reported.

Nunomura then handed the Olympic flame to Makoto Noji from the Fukushima government. "I strongly believe that the Olympic flame departure from the J-Village next year will be a strong message that we can overcome whatever difficulty,” said Noji.

“(It is a) symbol of hope - after we overcome this coronavirus disease we are now facing, with the people, not only from Japan but from all over the world.”

The J-Village was chosen as the starting point of the 121-day torch relay - originally due to start on March 26 - because it is a symbol of Japan’s reconstruction following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The facility was also used as a base to launch recovery efforts along the devastated coastline. It has only recently been resurrected to its former glory as a performance centre for Japan’s elite young soccer players.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Japanese government, after facing intense pressure from athletes and sporting bodies around the world agreed to push back the Games.