President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, and Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo held a conference call Tuesday morning and expressed their shared concern about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and underlined that the Tokyo Olympic Games "must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community," the source pointed out.

The two leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand "as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present."

Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan, the source said, adding that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.