The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020), the International Olympic Committee and the Hellenic Olympic Committee announced today the dates for the Olympic Flame Lighting Ceremony and Olympic Flame Handover Ceremony that will form part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay.
The Flame Lighting Ceremony will take place in Ancient Olympia, home of the ancient Games in Greece, on 12 March 2020. At the ancient Temple of Hera, a modern High Priestess will ignite the Olympic flame in the traditional way by using the rays of the sun and a parabolic mirror. The Greek leg of the Torch Relay will then run for 8 days in Greece until 19 March 2020.
Following this, the ceremony to hand over the flame to Tokyo 2020 representatives will be held at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on 19 March 2020.
The flame will then make its way to Japan, arriving on 20 March 2020, and will be displayed for six days in the Tohoku region, Miyagi prefecture, Iwate prefecture and Fukushima prefecture in order, commemorating the earthquake and tsunami that struck the area in March 2011. The Olympic Torch Relay will commence on 26 March under the theme of “Hope Lights Our Way”, taking in all of Japan’s 47 prefectures and aiming to inspire the Japanese nation to unite around messages of supporting, accepting and encouraging one another.
Schedule of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay
12 March Lighting Ceremony in Olympia, Greece
12 – 19 March Greek leg of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay (The route to be announced by HOC in due course)
19 March Handover Ceremony in Athens, Greece
20 March Flame arrives at Matsushima Airfield, Miyagi, Japan
20 – 21 March Flame on display in Miyagi Prefecture
22 – 23 March Flame on display in Iwate Prefecture
24 – 25 March Flame on display in Fukushima Prefecture
26 March – 24 July Japanese leg of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay starts from Fukushima, taking in all 47 prefectures of Japan
*All dates are in local time
Source: https://tokyo2020.org