Japan's Blue Impulse for the arrival of the Olympic flame

[Belgaviation]

Japan's Blue Impulse aerobatics team will draw the five Olympic rings in the sky with colored smoke at a ceremony in March to mark the arrival of the sacred flame from Greece, a source familiar with the matter said Friday.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee has decided that the Air Self-Defense Force flight team will perform when the flame is ignited at the celebration cauldron from the lantern at the ASDF Matsushima base in northeastern Japan's Miyagi Prefecture, according to the source.
The Blue Impulse gave similar performances at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and flew over the stadium, leaving smoke in the five Olympic colors at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.The flame is due to arrive from Greece on March 20.
At the planned ceremony in Higashimatsushima, which was hit hard by the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, local elementary school students will welcome the sacred flame lantern. The ASDF's aerobatic team has recently refrained from using colored smoke due to concerns that the dyestuffs could stain the ground, but the Defense Ministry has improved them so that they will have no impact on the land, according to the source.
In September, the Blue Impulse drew a cherry blossom in the sky with white smoke to mark the opening of the Rugby World Cup hosted by Japan. The aerobatic performance in Miyagi will be dependent on the conditions, the source said, as the northeastern Japan region has many windy days in March.