Tokyo Olympic Flame Emerges from Hiding

(ATR) Last seen in March after its arrival in Japan, the Olympic Flame is about to go on public display in Tokyo.

Lit during a ceremony in Ancient Olympia, the flame was flown from Greece to Fukushima, Japan where the Olympic Torch Relay for the 2020 Games was supposed to start. But soon after the flame touched down in Japan, the relay was put on hold as a countermeasure to the spread of the coronavirus. And days later, the IOC and Tokyo 2020 postponed the Games by one year, including the nearly four month relay through Japan.

Since then, Tokyo organizers have kept mum about the whereabouts of the flame, only saying that it was being held in a secure location.

The flame will emerge from its hiding place August 31 and will be available for public viewing until Nov. 1 at the Olympic Museum of the Japanese Olympic Committee headquarters.

Media will have the opportunity to see the flame first in aceremony Aug. 31. Tokyo 2020 chair Yoshiro Mori and JOC President Yasuhiro Yamashita are scheduled to speak.

From Sept. 1 to Nov. 1, the public will be able to visit the museum for a look at the flame in one of the safety lanterns used to transport it from Greece. Hours of viewing are 1000 to 1700 with the museum closed on Mondays.

Reservations are needed to limit crowds due to pandemic restrictions. An admission of 500 yen is charged. Visitors of high school age and younger are admitted without charge. The Japan Olympic Museum website has more details.

The museum re-opened June 23 after moving three years ago from a location at the site of the former National Stadium, where a new stadium has been built.

The flame will go back into hiding after the museum exhibition, returning to public display for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay. Once planned to last from April to opening ceremony in July, with 10,000 runners across Japan, Tokyo 2020 has not yet announced any revisions to those plans.

Reported by Ed Hula.