Asia-Pacific
Signs of the times: Clocks counting down to postponed Tokyo Olympics stop
Stars and Stripes
March 25, 2020
Commuters stop outside Tokyo Station to check out a clock counting down to the Summer Olympics, Wednesday, March 25, 2020. The display was changed to show the current date, 25-3, following a decision to postpone the event because of the coronavirus. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
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TOKYO — Many commuters couldn’t help but gawk Wednesday at special clocks erected around the city that had been counting down to the start of the Summer Olympics.
Instead of showing how many days were left until the much-anticipated games, the displays read “25-3,” or March 25, the current date.
The change was made a day after the International Olympic Committee announced that the event would be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, a spokesman from the Tokyo Organising Committee for the Olympics and Paralympics told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday.
The games, which will now kick off at a yet-to-be-determined date next year, will still be called the 2020 Olympics, said the IOC, a symbolic gesture it hopes will allow the event to “stand as a beacon of hope.”