NAGANO - The torch for the Beijing Games will pass through this former Winter Olympics host city on Saturday, on Day 27 of its 33-day international relay.

Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) executive member Li Binghua (C) holds the Olympic flame upon its arrival at Tokyo's Haneda airport April 25, 2008. [Xinhua] Click for relay cities

The first Asian country to stage the modern Olympics, Japan has hosted one Summer Games (Tokyo 1964) and two Winter Games (Sapporo 1972 and Nagano 1998).

International Olympic Committee Vice-President Chiharu Igaya (left) and Cui Tiankai (center), Chinese ambassador to Japan, hold the Beijing Olympic flame on its arrival at Tokyo's Haneda airport on Friday. Hou Yu Prior to hosting the winter event, Nagano - the densely forested prefecture at the heart of the Japanese archipelago - won the bid to host the 1940 Winter Games, but the event was cancelled due to World War II.

It also hosted the Special Olympics World Winter Games in 2005.

Yamagishi Shigeji, a 77-year-old torchbearer, who also carried the flame in 1998, said he has a strong affinity with China after living there from 1941 to 1946.

"My adolescence was spent in China. I witnessed the People's Liberation Army create New China, and saw the country's many other achievements," he told China Daily.

"I feel happy China is hosting the Olympics and wish it every success," he said.

"Various forces - in particular the media in Japan and other countries - have been paying close attention to the Beijing Olympics and to me, as the oldest torchbearer (in Japan). I've been pressured by many sides and people who tell me to say this and that, or tell me of the kind of impact my words will have this is the most tiresome thing for me," Yamagishi said on Friday.

"I just hope all goes well this August in Beijing. For that I'll contribute my share - and run well tomorrow," he said.

Kosuke Kitajima, a gold medal-winning swimmer in Athens 2004, is one of only a handful of Olympians who will carry the flame in Nagano. Most of the 80 torchbearers will be sports coaches and students.

Among them is 42-year-old amateur triathlete Mamoru Hayashi. In 1998, his handicapped son was born during the Nagano Olympics.

"He taught me a sense of charity," Hayashi said in English. "And then he passed away (at the age of 4).

"So I hope peace will prevail, and at the end of the day, people all over the world will have a peaceful life, through this Olympic Games in Beijing," he said.

"I always dreamed of taking part in an Olympic triathlon, but I never quite managed it. Being a torchbearer is at least something close," Hayashi said.

After Nagano, the Olympic flame will travel to Seoul on Sunday and on to Pyongyang on Monday.