TOKYO: A number of torches used for last year’s Tokyo Olympic Games have been resold online although their resale is prohibited by an agreement that torch runners had to sign.

The organizing committee for the Tokyo Summer Games is asking online flea market and other operators to delete information on the torches in question.

“This is a real Olympic torch,” said one seller, who put a torch for sale on such a market run by Mercari Inc. for an initial 1.25 million yen in mid-June, far higher than some 70,000 yen for which the committee sold each torch to torch runners and municipalities that hosted torch relay events. The torch has been sold at “a final discount” price of 560,000 yen.

Another seller explained the reason for reselling, saying, “I don’t have a place to display it at home.”

The torches are 71 centimeters long and weigh 1.2 kilograms each. With a color combination of gold and pink, they are made partly from aluminum used in temporary homes built in the northeastern Japan prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The committee sold some 10,000 torches for 71,940 yen each to torch runners who wanted to buy them as a commemorative item. Some unsold torches were later sold to local governments for display and other purposes. The torches have been sold out.

According to the committee, the ban on the resale of the torches was stated on the website for purchases, as well as in the letter of consent that the torch runners were asked to sign and the receipts for the torches

“The torches were bought with consent (for the resale ban),” an official of the committee said. “We want the torches to be treated based on the letter of consent.”

Some Tokyo Olympic torches are on display in touring exhibitions hosted by municipalities across the country and on permanent display at the Tokyo metropolitan government and Chiba prefectural government buildings.

JIJI Press