On 24 March, the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) announced the postponement of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

In the light of this postponement, Tokyo 2020 has decided to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay scheduled to start on 26 March. We will announce revised dates for the Torch Relay after the new schedule for the Tokyo 2020 Games has been fixed, and renew our preparations for a vigorous Grand Start event that will bring people together again.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our partner organisations, each prefectural taskforce and the many other stakeholders who have made such great efforts to prepare for the Relay, and we ask for your continued cooperation. We will consider measures that allow torchbearers who were selected to run in the now postponed event to be given priority in the selection process for the new Torch Relay.