Olympic flame arrives in Japan

WATCH VIDEO

Source: CCTV.com | 04-25-2008 13:18

The chartered plane carrying the Beijing Olympic flame has arrived in Japan at Tokyo's Haneda Airport. The country is preparing for the 16th leg of the torch relay in the central city of Nagano.

The chartered plane carrying the Beijing Olympic sacred flame  landed at Tokyo's Haneda Airport early Friday morning for its  16th leg of torch relay scheduled for Saturday in the central  Japanese city of Nagano. (Xinhua Photo)

The flame arrived in Tokyo at 6am local time on Friday from its last stop in Australia's capital of Canberra. It was carried off the plane by the vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, or BOCOG, Li Binghua. China's ambassador to Japan, Cui Tiankai, and Chiharu Igaya, vice president of the IOC, were at the airport to welcome the Chinese delegation. There was also enormous support from the overseas Chinese community in Japan.

In preparation for the torch relay on Saturday, the flame will be transferred to Nagano, where the Winter Olympic Games were hosted in 1998.

Japan's Olympic officials held a press conference two days ago to formally announce the list of selected torchbearers for the Nagano leg of the relay. 80 people including former Olympic champions, sports celebrities, government officials and representatives from the public sector are set to carry the torch.