TOKYO: The Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics, held in 2021 amid the novel coronavirus crisis, have been highly rated globally, the Japanese sports ministry said in an annual report Tuesday.

While the international sports events, originally scheduled in 2020, were postponed for the first time in Olympic and Paralympic history, due to the pandemic, Japan has received high praise from across the world as it staged the Games without causing confusion or clusters of infections through the implementation of thorough countermeasures, the ministry said in the white paper.

Showing to the world Japan’s recovery from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which mainly hit the Tohoku northeastern Japan region, was one of the themes of the Tokyo Games.

On this, the paper noted that some of the competition events and torch relay were held in areas affected by the disaster to highlight progress in the reconstruction efforts, adding that the ministry will continue working to enhance the attraction of the afflicted areas so that people from around the globe will visit the places after the pandemic is contained.

JIJI Press