FUKUSHIMA/TOKYO: The Olympic torch relay is set to start in Fukushima on Thursday, kicking off a four-month countdown to the summer Games in Tokyo, delayed from 2020 and the first ever organised during a global pandemic.

About 10,000 runners will carry the torch across Japan’s 47 prefectures, including far-flung islands, starting from the site of the 2011 quake and tsunami that killed about 20,000 people, highlighting the government’s “Reconstruction Olympics” theme.