As Tokyo Games open, can Olympic flame burn away the funk?

(AP) The Tokyo Games are arriving at last, after a yearlong delay.

They’re a multinational showcase of the finest athletes of a world fragmented by disease. They’re also steeped in the political and medical baggage of the relentless pandemic.

Japanese are deeply divided on whether they should be taking place. But organizing officials hope an opening ceremony that will be viewed by the world, but by almost no one in the stadium where it occurs, can overcome those hesitations. The ceremony kicks off two weeks of athletic events that will be held in front of thousands of empty seats, just like the opening.