Photo/Illutration The lantern bearing the Olympic flame carried in a Sanriku Railway train in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 22 (Takuya Isayama)

The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee on March 23 decided to cancel the relay by the Olympic torch runners that was set to start March 26, according to government and other officials.

The committee made the decision based on the International Olympic Committee's consideration of postponing the Games as a safety measure against the spread of the new coronavirus.

Members of the Japan's women’s national soccer team who won the 2011 World Cup had been scheduled to participate as torch relay runners in the first section.

“We're making adjustments to how the torch relay will be done,” a senior organizing committee official said.

The ceremony to mark the relay's start in Fukushima Prefecture will proceed as planned on March 26.

But instead of having runners carry the torch, the organizing committee is weighing plans to transport the lantern containing the Olympic flame by car, Olympic Games officials said.

“I'm in shock,” said Jun Izumita, 60, who was chosen to run in the torch relay in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, on March 26 after learning of the change while watching the news on television.

Izumita is a resident of Futaba in the prefecture, one of the two towns that host the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Futaba has been a virtual ghost town since residents were ordered to evacuate in March 2011 after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami triggered a triple meltdown at the plant.

“Even if the Games are postponed until one or two years later, I want to join the torch relay as a runner,” said Izumita, who will retire later this month as principal of the town’s elementary school, which has been temporarily relocated to Iwaki.

After people were asked to refrain from cheering runners in the relay along the streets, children and their parents wrote messages of support for the Olympics on banners that were to be displayed along the route.

During the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the torch relay between the Hyogo and Osaka prefectural government buildings was canceled due to a typhoon.

Two years ago, runners who couldn't join that section of the 1964 relay formed a group to run in the 2020 torch relay. Ten members were chosen as group runners for the event.

Junya Mori, 73, leader of the group, is facing the prospect of again being left out of the relay.

“Floundering doesn't help anything. Let God do the rest,” said Mori, who resides in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture. 

The IOC on March 22 said that it would issue a decision on whether to alter plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, including postponement, within four weeks. 

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