The Olympic torch relay has begun in Japan with waves, smiles and high fives, but no cheers, on a four-month countdown to the games in Tokyo, the first organised during a deadly pandemic.
The relay got under way in Fukushima, an area hit hard by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. "For the past year, as the entire world underwent a difficult period, the Olympic flame was kept alive quietly but powerfully," Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto said at the opening ceremony, which was closed to spectators. "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," she said.