The New Tokyo National Stadium

According to News Web Easy, the one of the purposes of the Tokyo Olympic is to tell the world of the state of the disaster areas, where the great East Japan Earthquake hit 10 years ago, that has become much much better.

For this reason, the Olympic torch relay has started from Fukushima Prefecture, where was hugely damaged by the disaster. The ceremony of departure was held at 9 am at J village where is a football training place, in Fukushima Prefecrture.

The president, Ms Hashimoto, said at the ceremony ” the corona virus has been spreading around the world for the past one year and it has been difficult times for all of us. Having said that, the torch was waiting for this moment, today’s departure! The torch will be a light at the darkness, and will be relaying with hope. I sincerely pray for this torch to become a bigger light with hope and reaching at the Tokyo National Stadium on 23rd of July”

And then, the torch designed with Sakura (cherry blossoms) was lit, the team of 16 former female footballers who won at the world cup 10 years ago first started running.

An approximately 10,000 runners will be participating for the torch relay and running around all prefectures in 121 days.

For Japanese learners, the below is the Japanese article extracted from NHK News Web Easy.

東京オリンピックの聖火リレーが福島県から始まる

オリンピックの目標の１つは、１０年前に東日本大震災があった所が元気になってきた様子を、世界に伝えることです。

このため、聖火リレーは震災で大きな被害があった福島県から始まります。出発の式は、２５日の午前９時から、福島県にあるサッカーの練習場所のＪヴィレッジでありました。

式では組織委員会の橋本会長が「今までの１年、新しいコロナウイルスが広がって世界中が大変でしたが、聖火は今日の出発を待っていました。聖火が暗い中の光になって、希望をリレーしていきます。７月２３日に大きな光になって東京の国立競技場に届くことを祈ります」と言いました。

そして、桜をデザインしたトーチに聖火をつけて、１０年前に女子サッカーのワールドカップで優勝したチームの１６人が最初に走り始めました。

聖火リレーは約１万人が参加して、１２１日間で全部の都道府県をまわります。

Thank you for reading my blog, lets hope that Tokyo Olympic will be successful!