IOC Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission Chair John Coates visits Nagasaki

John Coates, International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President, visited Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum on Friday, just a week ahead of the opening of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Coates' visit to Nagasaki came along with the IOC President Thomas Bach's visit to Hiroshima, the cities hit with atomic bombs by the United States in 1945, in hope to promote the first day of the so-called Olympic Truce, a tradition from ancient Greece that was revived by a United Nations resolution in 1993.

They will also be signaling the start of the Tokyo Olympics in one week. The Games are going ahead during the pandemic despite persistent opposition in Japan from the general public and the medical community.

The opening ceremony for the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics will be held at the National Stadium on July 23.