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Tokyo Olympics torch relay schedule intact for next year

The 2021 Tokyo Olympics Torch relay is expected to start on March 25, 2021, in Fukushima prefecture from the J-Village soccer training centre, a symbol of Japan`s reconstruction from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

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The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak, making this the first time that the games were postponed rather than cancelled.
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Tokyo Olympic organisers plan to follow roughly the same schedule, delayed by a year, for the nationwide torch relay preceeding the postponed summer Games, according to reports on Thurdsday. The relay is expected to start on March 25, 2021, in Fukushima prefecture from the J-Village soccer training centre, a symbol of Japan`s reconstruction from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Runners are to pass through all 47 of Japan’s prefectures in the relay lasting 121 days, as originally planned, the news agency said.

The relay had been scheduled to start in J-Village on March 26 this year, but just days before that, the International Olympic Committee and Japanese government decided to postpone the Games by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Postponed games

Organisers aim to stick to the event as originally planned but could still make changes to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Kyodo said.

"We are continuing to respect the original framework as much as possible while we review how we organise the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay," the organising committee said in an emailed statement in reponse to the report.

The Tokyo Olympics are now scheduled to run from July 23 to Aug. 8, 2021.

Despite being held in 2021, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad will keep the name Tokyo 2020. This is the first time that the Summer Olympic Games have been postponed rather than cancelled.

Tokyo was selected as the host for the Games during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7 September 2013. This will be the second time that Japan — and specifically Tokyo — are hosting the Summer Olympics, the first being in 1964. This makes it the first city in Asia to host the Summer Games twice. Overall, these will be the fourth Olympic Games to be held in Japan, which also hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972 (Sapporo) and 1998 (Nagano).

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