“Flame of Tokyo” Created for Upcoming Paralympics

From Jiji

August 20 2021

TOKYO –A ceremony to create the “flame of Tokyo” for the upcoming Tokyo Paralympics was held at a square on the grounds of the Tokyo metropolitan government building on Friday.

In the ceremony, held without spectators amid the COVID-19 pandemic, flames lit with solar power and other ways in Tokyo’s 62 cities, wards, towns and villages were brought together.

“We can’t call the Tokyo Games successful unless the Paralympics end in success,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said. “We aim to host the event from Tuesday safely and securely and use its legacy for the development of a sustainable city,” she added.

In order to complete the Paralympic flame, the flame of Tokyo will be united at a separate ceremony later on Friday with flames from the 46 other Japanese prefectures, as well as from Stoke Mandeville in Britain, the spiritual birthplace of the Paralympic movement.