Olympic spotlight for Fukushima in Tokyo's 'Recovery Games'

Nine years after the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, Japan's government is hoping for a "Recovery Olympics" that will showcase reconstruction in some of the country's hardest-hit regions.

From the early days of its bid for the 2020 Summer Games, Japan cast the Olympics as "a dream that can give us strength" after the so-called triple disaster -- earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident -- that left over 18,500 people dead and missing.

The Games will allow Japan to "demonstrate to the world how far we have come in rebuilding our country", then-Tokyo governor Naoki Inose wrote in the city's bid.

And with just months until the opening ceremony on July 24, and preparations hit by the coronavirus outbreak, the worst-affected regions will take centre-stage with the arrival of the Olympic flame.

The flame lands on March 20 in Miyagi prefecture, which was ravaged by the tsunami unleashed by an undersea quake on March 11, 2011.

Celebrations have been toned down because of the virus, with plans scrapped to involve 200 children in the welcoming ceremony, and organisers warning spectators may be limited during the torch relay.

The torch sets out on March 26 on a country-wide journey from one of the most symbolic sites associated with the "Recovery Games": Fukushima's J-Village.

The sports training complex became a staging ground during the disaster, thronging with thousands of workers in radiation protection suits and masks, armed with dosimeters.

They were dispatched every day to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from the sports centre, located on the edge of the initial 20-kilometre (12-mile) no-go zone.

- 'Power of sport' -
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- 'New energy and strength' -
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