Tokyo Olympics torch relay to start on March 25, 2021 in Fukushima

Yoshiro Mori, president of Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, addresses during the ceremony marking the Olympic flame to be publicly displayed at the Japan Olympic Museum in Tokyo, Japan, August 31, 2020. /CFP

The torch relay event of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games will start on March 25 next year in Fukushima Prefecture, organizers said on Monday.

Even the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to July 23, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games have remained as Tokyo 2020. The Paralympic torch relay will be held in August, ahead of the Paralympics which are set to start on August 24, 2021.

Starting from Fukushima's J-Village football training center, around 10,000 runners who have already been selected will traverse across the nation's 47 prefectures in a 121-day journey.

Established in 1997, the football center resumed operation in April 2019. The selection of the facility as the starting point of the Tokyo 2020 was to highlight Japan's efforts to recover from the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as well as the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 that triggered it, said organizers.

The relay routes and events will follow the schedule but further adjustments may be made according to the status of each region, Kyoto News reported.

The Olympic flame is lit at the cauldron during the "Flame of Recovery" special exhibition ceremony at Aquamarine Park in Iwaki, Fukushima, Japan, March 25, 2020. /CFP

On September 25, organizers outlined steps for hosting "simplified" games amid the pandemic with propositions on cutting back the number of staff.

"We are already resolved to do this (hosting the games) next year no matter what," said Yoshiro Mori, president of Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee.

The number of officials, staff and other people associated with the games could be cut by 10-15 percent, Mori added.

However, there were no plans to cut the number of participating athletes, according to Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto, adding that there would be no change to the number of days for the torch relay, the relay route or the number of relay runners.