Tokyo 2020 torch relay sets off on four-month journey

Japanese torchbearer Azusa Iwashimizu (R), a member of the Japan women’s national football team, passes the Olympic flame to high school student Asato Owada at a torch ”kiss point“ during the torch relay grand start outside J-Village National Training Centre in Naraha town, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 25, 2021. Philip Fong/Pool via REUTERS

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Olympic torch relay set off from Fukushima on Thursday, beginning a four-month countdown to the summer Games in Tokyo, delayed from 2020 and the first ever organised during a global pandemic.

The following are reactions to the relay start.

SEIKO HASHIMOTO, PRESIDENT OF TOKYO 2020 ORGANISING COMMITTEE:

“For the past year as the entire world underwent a difficult period, the Olympic flame was kept alive quietly but powerfully. The small flame did not lose hope and just like the cherry blossom buds that are ready to bloom, it was waiting for this day.”

YURIKO KOIKE, TOKYO GOVERNOR:

“I believe that the torch relay, which is starting now, through the cooperation of the people of Japan will safely travel around the country leading to the Olympics, a road of hope that pushes (disaster) recovery into a higher gear and becomes a step towards a sustainable recovery from the pandemic.”

MASAO UCHIBORI, GOVERNOR OF FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE:

“Ten years have passed since the Great East Japan Disaster and the nuclear accident, and Fukushima’s recovery is going steadily. However there are still many people who cannot return to their homes, and many difficult issues such as reviving these areas, rebuilding the lives of their residents, and the still persistent rumours. So you can say our recovery is still incomplete.”

A PROTESTOR WITH LOUDSPEAKER, DRIVING BY THE RELAY ROUTE:

“You have to be joking! Everyone knows we can’t have the Olympics.”

(Reporting by Elaine Lies, Mari Saito, Ju-min Park and Issei Kato; editing by Richard Pullin)