When I first heard this headline on CNN, I thought Japan had cancelled the whole relay in their country. A quick search Google revealed that this is not the case. Japan is only canceling an extra event they had originally planned to welcome the Olympic torch.

The torch relay will be run in Nagano, Japan. Nagano hosted the 1998 winter Olympics.

“Because many of our city officials and security guards need to monitor the torch relay itself, we can’t afford to have this additional event”, said Koichi Yajima, a city official.

“We had planned this event to create an welcoming mood, but the circumstances changed.”