Photo/Illutration The torch relay for the 2020 Tokyo Games is scheduled to start from the J-Village facility, which spreads across the towns of Naraha and Hirono in Fukushima Prefecture. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Olympic torch for the 2020 Tokyo Games will travel throughout the country as planned, but spectators are being urged not to swamp relay routes so as to minimize the risk of a further spread of the new coronavirus.

Organizers of the Games announced March 17 that ceremonies to mark the torch’s departure from the J-Village facility in Fukushima Prefecture and arrival in cities and towns will be scaled down and held without public participation.

For the relays scheduled to kick off March 26 in Fukushima Prefecture, organizers stopped short of asking the public to refrain from going out to cheer runners along the route. But they warned that routes may change if large crowds flock to roadsides.

Scheduled events related to the torch relay will also be scaled down significantly.

The torch is scheduled to travel through three prefectures--Fukushima, Tochigi and Gunma--in March.

Organizers are urging people who feel unwell not to venture out to watch the relay. Healthy people are being asked to avoid densely packed areas for the time being.

The decision on what constitutes a densely packed area will be left to local event organizers.

If large numbers of spectators turn out to cheer celebrity runners such as former Olympians and popular entertainers, staff will ask people to keep a distance from each other.

Staff may also reshuffle or shorten each leg to avoid congestion.

In Fukushima Prefecture, the all-male idol group TOKIO is slated to run in the relay, giving rise to fears of large crowds.

However, organizers said they had no plans to cancel the participation of celebrity runners.

A ceremony for the torch’s departure at the J-Village and ceremonies to mark the arrival of the torch in Tochigi and Gunma prefectures will be held without public spectators.

Welcoming ceremonies and other events scheduled to be held along the relay route and hosted by municipal governments will also be canceled.

Organizers will discuss plans for the rest of the torch relay from April.

Twenty-six municipalities along the relay route in Fukushima Prefecture have planned special events to showcase how the region has recovered from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster that triggered a nuclear crisis.

Those plans have now gone up in smoke.

“I am worried that the mood of the entire prefecture getting into the spirit of things together will disappear,” said a prefectural official. “Hopefully, we will come up with an alternative.”

Yumiko Nishimoto, who is 66 and lives in Hirono town in the prefecture, is among those selected to run in the torch relay.

“The torch relay is an opportunity to tell (the world) what the situation in Fukushima is like now, and I really wish lots of people could come out and see the relay,” she said.

Nishimoto, who heads a nonprofit organization that does volunteer work with high school students, expressed her hope that her run will “inspire people to be part of the prefecture's reconstruction."

Erika Usui, a 33-year-old table tennis player who won gold medals at the Special Olympics last year, is slated to run the first leg of the torch relay in Utsunomiya.

“I understand the ceremony will be affected by (the virus). Still, I will do my best when I'm running,” she said.