As the Japanese government intends to declare a state of emergency in seven regions of the country to deal with the increasing number of cases of coronavirus, the Olympic flame will cease to be exposed. The decision, announced by the Olympic committee on Tuesday, comes just over a week after the one-year postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
The Olympic flame had been exposed for a few days in Fukushima, northeast of Honshu, the main island of the archipelago. “Originally, we wanted to maintain its public exhibition until the end of April. But given the recent developments, we have decided to shut it down, ”said the spokesman for the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. Arriving on March 20 from Greece where it had been lit, the Olympic flame was to leave March 26 from Fukushima for a route and relay through Japan until its arrival in Tokyo on July 24, the day of the ceremony. opening of the Games.
Fukushima, symbolic place for the Olympic Games
If the flame was presented at Fukushima, it is for the symbolism of this place, nine years after the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear disaster. Indeed, the Japanese government wanted to make the Olympic Games 2020 the “Games of reconstruction”, capable of restoring strength and visibility to Japanese territory and to the population of the archipelago, deeply affected by the accident of March 2011 .
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