Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach agreed Tuesday to postpone the Olympics by about one year.

Abe put the suggestion to Bach, who agreed that the latest date the Olympics will be held is summer 2021.

It was also announced that the event will still be dubbed Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite the postponement.

"The IOC president and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the 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," said a statement from the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.

The Olypmic torch procession has gone ahead in Japan despite calls for the Games to be postponed.

"The 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 IOC has been facing mounting pressure to delay the Games, which were originally scheduled to take place from July 24 to August 9, amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Olympics have never been rescheduled in peacetime. In 1916, 1940 and 1944, the Games were canceled because of world wars.