athens tokyo 2020 organisers received the olympic flame in a scaleddown handover ceremony in the greek capital on thursday amid the coronavirus spread that has cast doubt on the global multibillion dollar eventin a brief ceremony closed to spectators in athens panathenaic stadium site of the first modern games in 1896 the torch was received by tokyo games representative naoko imotoit will arrive in japan on friday and kick off a domestic relay on march 26 with the games set to take place from july 24aug 9the scale of the spreading coronavirus which has infected more than 200000 people and killed more than 8700 across the world has forced the cancellation of numerous sporting events raising concerns about whether the olympics will be able to open as plannedthe international olympic committee ioc and the japanese government however have insisted the games will go aheadgreeces olympic committee chief spyros capralos handed over the lit torch to the japanese former olympic swimmer imoto in front of empty stands inside the vast 50000capacity horseshoeshaped marble stadiumthe flame was then transferred into a small receptacle to travel to japan aboard a special aircraft named tokyo 2020 goonly a few dozen officials were allowed into the central athens stadium as the country has imposed strict measures to contain the spread of the virustokyo games chief yoshiro mori said in a video message he hoped the flames arrival would help shake off the dark clouds hanging over the worldthe plane will land at jasdf matsushima air base in miyagi prefecture on friday before the start of a domestic relay from fukushima prefecture site of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami