The organizing committee of next summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics allowed the media Wednesday to watch an online training session for volunteers after the program resumed last week following a roughly eight-month suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The committee's group training program, in which participants learn about the basic rules of volunteering, began in October last year. However, the sessions scheduled at the end of February were postponed, before the global health crisis caused a one-year delay of the games in March.

While the sessions were initially held in groups of several hundred people, they have been taking place online since they resumed on Oct. 21 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Some 5,000 people in Japan and abroad are set to participate until December, the committee said.

The volunteers — 80,000 of which were chosen from more than 200,000 applications — will provide support at sports venues and the athletes village.

The committee plans to notify the volunteers of their specific work shift between March and May next year, with follow-up training programs taking place in April or thereafter.

After receiving their uniforms as early as May, the volunteers will begin training at venues in preparation for the Olympics, scheduled between July 23 and Aug. 8, followed by the Paralympics from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5, according to the committee.