Olympic flame arrives in Japan amid coronavirus fears

Naoko Imoto, an Olympian in swimming at the Olympic Games of Atlanta 1996, holds a torch with the Tokyo Olympic Flame at the Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, on March 19, 2020. (Photo by Aris Messinis-pool photo/Xinhua)

The Olympic flame arrived in Japan on Friday amid coronavirus fears with only four months to go until the opening of the Tokyo Games.

TOKYO, March 20 (Xinhua) -- The Olympic flame arrived in Japan on Friday amid coronavirus fears with only four months to go until the opening of the Tokyo Games.

The Tokyo 2020 Go, a chartered aircraft carrying the flame, landed at the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force base in Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture on Friday.

Greek Olympic medalist in pole vault Katerina Stefanidi holds the Tokyo Olympic Flame at the Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, on March 19, 2020. (Photo by Aris Messinis-pool photo/Xinhua)

An arrival ceremony will be held later on Friday morning to welcome the flame but performances by local students have been canceled due to the spread of the coronavirus.

The flame will be displayed in three northern prefectures hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami before the start of the torch relay on March 26 from J-Village at Fukushima. ■