The public exhibition of the Olympic flame in Fukushima Prefecture will be suspended after Wednesday due to escalating concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus in Japan, the Tokyo Games organizing committee said Tuesday.
The flame was put on display last Thursday following the postponement of the 2020 Summer Games and was to be shown until the end of the month at the site of J-Village, a soccer training center in Fukushima that served as a frontline base during the 2011 nuclear disaster.
The Tokyo Olympics will now take place from July 23 to Aug. 8, 2021, followed by the Paralympics from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.
After being ignited last month in Greece, the Olympic flame arrived in Japan as scheduled on March 20 and was set to tour the country on a 121-day torch relay starting March 26 before the postponement was announced the day before.
The International Olympic Committee and local organizers decided that the flame will remain burning in Japan during the delay prompted by the global COVID-19 pandemic