Tokyo begins Olympic task of reorganising Games

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan set about the unprecedented task of reorganising the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Wednesday after making the tough decision to postpone the Games by a year as the coronavirus pandemic locks down one third of the planet.

The dramatic step to shift the Olympics, never before seen in peacetime, upends every aspect of the organisation -- including venues, security, ticketing and accommodation.

In a move symbolic of the difficulties now facing Tokyo, Olympic countdown clocks in the city switched from displaying the number of days to go, instead simply showing today’s date and the time.

"It’s like taking seven years to build the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle and, with just one piece to go, having to start again but now with less time to finish," tweeted Craig Spence, spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee.

It is not even clear exactly when the rescheduled Games will take place, with the International Olympic Committee saying the new date would be "beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021".

Japan has framed Tokyo 2020 as the "Recovery Games" -- a chance to show the world it has bounced back from the "triple disaster" in 2011 when a massive earthquake sparked a tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

The delayed event -- still to be called Tokyo 2020 -- will now be a "testament to mankind’s defeat of the new virus", said Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

He repeated that message in a Wednesday call with US President Donald Trump, in which the leaders agreed the Games would be "proof that humans have beaten the new coronavirus", a Japanese government spokesman said.

The Olympic flame "could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present", Japan and the IOC said in a joint statement.