Tokyo 2020 unveils Olympic Games torch relay route

June 1 (UPI) -- The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, dubbed Tokyo 2020, unveiled details Saturday of the official Olympic torch relay route.

Around 10,000 torchbearers, including men, women and children will bear the Olympic flame in the 121-day torch relay culminating in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, a Tokyo 2020 statement said.

The torch relay, which passes through 857 local municipalities and all 47 prefectures of Japan, is meant to gear up enthusiasm for the Olympic Games across the nation and world.

It starts on March 26, 2020. at the J-Village national soccer training center in Fukushima Prefecture, located in the Tohoku region, which is continuing to recover from a 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and following tsunami waves, as a gesture marking the area's reconstruction from the disaster.

Along the way, it will stop at World Heritage Sites like Mount Fuji and Itsukushima shrine, among other historic places and favorite local community spots, before arriving in Tokyo on July 10, which has been allocated the most days for the relay as Olympic host.

The relay will finish in the Shinjuku Ward of Tokyo on July 24 with the Olympic flame being lit in the cauldron of the new National Stadium at the opening ceremony starting at 8 p.m.

The daily schedule for the relay is 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with the flame being transported to the starting point the next day by car or other means.

Tokyo 2020 said in its statement that around 98 percent of Japanese residents live within one hour by car or train of the proposed route.

"The route has been designed to ensure that large numbers of people across Japan will be able to line the roadsides, cheer on the torchbearers and create a festive atmosphere," the statement said.

The committee is accepting application for torchbearers.

With the relay vision being "Hope Lights Our Way," preference will be given to applicants who have demonstrated ability to overcome great adversity, who are accepting of people from different backgrounds and who "engender a sense of togetherness in their local community," Tokyo 2020 said.

The Games mark the return of the Summer Olympics to Tokyo for the first time since 1964.