Tokyo Olympics Torch Relay to Kick Off in Disaster-Hit Fukushima - Minister

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics agreed on Japan's disaster-hit city of Fukushima as a starting point for the 2020 Games torch relay, Japan's Reconstruction Minister Masayoshi Yoshino said on Thursday.

Fukushima was devastated in 2011 by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami, which killed over 15,000 people and hit a nuclear power plant, triggering the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

"With Fukushima named the starting point of the torch relay, [the relay] will be a symbol of the Olympics of recovery," Yoshino said, as cited by the Kyodo news.

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The minister added that people affected by the disaster will have the chance to run the relay.

The Olympic torch relay will start on March 26, 2020. It will travel through all of Japan's 47 prefectures to arrive at the National Stadium in Tokyo for the opening ceremony on July 24.