In light of the official decision to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the torch relay, set to commence on March 26 in Fukushima, is now cancelled as well. The new date is still undecided but the Games will be held no later than summer 2021. The torch relay will then be rescheduled once the new date for the Games is confirmed. The Olympic flame, however, will remain in Japan.
The decision was announced by Yoshiro Mori, the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee president, after a conference call with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto and IOC chief Thomas Bach. The call was made to discuss the postponement of the Games.
The first leg of the torch relay was planned to support the relief efforts in and travel through the Tohoku region, which was heavily hit by the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
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