Photo/Illutration Olympic torchbearers pose at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on May 17. Because Hiroshima Prefecture was under the COVID-19 state of emergency, the event was held without public attendance. (Jun Ueda)

Already rerouted and largely bereft of crowds because of resurging novel coronavirus infections, the much-hyped Tokyo Olympic torch relay will now have to bypass an entire prefecture located beside the host city.

“In the best interests of local residents’ safety and security, I’ve made the decision to cancel the torch relay on all routes in the prefecture,” Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai said at a May 27 news conference.

Local leaders and regional organizers have already restricted crowds and taken other anti-coronavirus measures for their legs of the 121-day Olympic torch relay that kicked off in Fukushima Prefecture on March 25.

The torch was supposed to be carried in all prefectures in Japan before lighting the Olympic cauldron in Tokyo in July.

In prefectures dealing with skyrocketing new COVID-19 cases--namely Osaka, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Okayama, Hyogo and Kyoto--the routes for the torch runners were changed to avoid public roads.

Residents have also been banned from ceremonial events concerning the torch relay.

Many runners, including celebrities and star athletes, have withdrawn from the relay, citing the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus.

Chiba is the second prefecture to entirely scrap the relay, following Fukuoka in Kyushu.

Kumagai said he would inform Tokyo Olympic organizers about the prefecture’s decision by the end of the day.

The relay was scheduled to start in the prefecture, which lies just east of the capital, on July 1 from Umihotaru, a rest area on the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line highway with a panoramic ocean view, in Kisarazu.

A total of 258 people or groups were slated to participate in Chiba Prefecture’s route until July 3.

Instead of the relay, Kumagai said, a torch lighting ceremony will be held behind closed doors on each of the three days.

A parking lot of the Makuhari Messe exhibition and convention complex in the city of Chiba is being considered as a site for such a ceremony. The sprawling facility will be a venue for the Tokyo Olympics.

“We are still in a situation where residents in the entire prefecture are urged to refrain from going out for nonessential purposes,” Kumagai said. “Letting torchbearers run will cause a movement of people in wide areas and likely further spread the virus.”

In Ichinomiya, an oceanside town that will hold surfing competitions for the Summer Games, 14 runners were scheduled to carry the torch on the edge of the water for about 3 kilometers.

A town official said the run was canceled because the prefectural government deems the “Swash zone” route a public road.

“I get sad thinking about the torchbearers,” Ichinomiya Mayor Masaya Mabuchi said. “But we have no choice, considering the relay cannot be held on any public road.”

The torch relay scheduled in Hokkaido on June 13 and 14 could also be canceled.

After asking the central government to extend the COVID-19 state of emergency for the northern main island until June 20, Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki said on May 26, “It will be difficult to hold the relay on public roads once the state of emergency is extended.”

A ceremonial event related to the relay is slated for Upopoy, the National Ainu Museum, in Shiraoi on June 13, as well as at Akapla, a square in Sapporo, on June 14.

Both events will likely be held without public attendance, the Hokkaido government said.

Toyama Prefecture is not under the state of emergency. But the prefecture in central Japan on May 23 logged a record number of new infection cases with 64.

Alarmed by the surge, Toyama Governor Hachiro Nitta told reporters on May 26 that the torch relay scheduled for June 2 and 3 in the prefecture will not be held on public roads.

Instead, a celebration event will be held each day, he said.

“It was a tough decision. I am very sorry for not being able to fulfill the expectations of those who have looked forward to (the relay),” the governor said.

(This article was compiled from reports written by Yuta Ogi, Nobuyuki Yoshie, Hirokazu Inada, Yuta Kayaba, Ryuzo Nakano, Noboru Okada and Satoshi Tazoe.)

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