The news was communicated in a letter sent by International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) secretary general Nicolas Buompane and seen by insidethegames.

The World Championships are due to take place at the Kitakyushu City General Gymnasium from October 27 to 31.

"According to the current travel restrictions, almost all foreign nationals must respect a quarantine when they arrive in Japan," Buompane wrote.

"However, the Japanese Gymnastics Association has discussed with the State authorities in order to have a quarantine exemption for the World Championships participants and managed to get this exemption, provided the participants in the World Championships arrive only at Narita or Haneda airports in Tokyo."

It means that, unlike athletes who competed at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, gymnasts will not have to stay in their hotel rooms for up to three days upon arrival in Japan before they are able to train.

"The participants will have to undergo COVID-tests at the airports in Tokyo on arrival and then will be able to travel from Tokyo to Kitakyushu on the same day via a domestic flight arranged by the local organisers," Buompane wrote.

The exemption, however, means that National Federations which had already made arrangements to travel directly to Kitakyushu, located in the located in Fukuoka Prefecture, nearly 650 miles from Tokyo, have had to scrap those plans.

"For the delegations who have already booked their travel to Kitakyushu: unfortunately, you have no choice but to change your flight ticket and cancel the domestic flights so that your final destination is Tokyo Haneda or Tokyo Narita," Buompane wrote to the National Federations.

Buompane defended the disruption and potential expense it could cause countries.

"We are really sorry for all the inconvenience this requirement may cause you," he wrote.

"Organising World Championships in this challenging period highly depends on several conditions which are beyond our control.

"We all must be thankful to the Japanese Association for their continuous efforts and do our best on our part to help them organise these two events as smoothly as we can."

The World Championships are set to present Morinari Watanabe with a unique last-minute opportunity to lobby potential voters ahead of the FIG Congress in Antalya in Turkey between November 5 and 7, where he will be standing for re-election as President.

Watanabe, a member of the International Olympic Committee and former secretary general of the Japan Gymnastics Association, was first elected FIG President in October 2016.

He is facing a challenge from Azerbaijan’s Farid Gayibov, President of European Gymnastics.