Beijing Olympic Flame arrives in Japan

Tokyo (ANTARA News/Kyodo) - The Olympic flame arrived early Friday morning at Haneda airport in Tokyo aboard a special charter flight from the Australian capital of Canberra.

The Japan leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay will start at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and will cover an 18.7 kilometer course through the city of Nagano in about three hours with 80 torchbearers taking turns to carry the flame.

Senichi Hoshino, the 61-year-old manager of the Japan national baseball team, has been assigned as the first runner in the relay.

Pro-Tibetan and other groups are expected to stage protests against China`s crackdown in Tibet and about other human rights issues, while around 2,000 Chinese residents and students from across Japan are expected to gather to support the torch relay.

Ten riot police force members and 100 uniformed police officers will surround the torch and runner while two Chinese flame attendants running alongside the
torch will oversee the flame, according to police sources.

The torch will be transported to Seoul after Nagano, the venue for the 1998 Winter Olympics. (*) end