Three of the biggest global sponsors of the Beijing Olympics have scaled back their plans for next week’s Japanese leg of the torch relay amid mounting fears of violent anti-Chinese protests, The Times has learnt.

In the first sign that the commercial side of the Olympics has been affected by the various anti-Chinese demonstrations around the world, Coca-Cola, Samsung and Lenovo have not exercised their right to run a logo-festooned vehicle along with the relay as the Olympic flame makes its way through Nagano.

Coca-Cola, which was to have led the torch relay with its vehicle, decided recently that it would not appear after watching the vehemence of anti-Chinese protests around the world.

No sponsor’s vehicles will now accompany the flame as it passes through the winter sports resort of Nagano next Saturday: a spokesman for Samsung said that Japan was the only leg of the relay where it had no plans to run the vehicle, having been warned some months in advance that security concerns had made the convoy too long.

After consultation with the authorities in Nagano prefecture – and with the overall security level of the torch-run raised to maximum levels – Coca-Cola said that it was taking “all precautions”.

A Coca-Cola spokesman said that it was no longer realistic to operate a private vehicle under the heightened security environment for the Japanese leg of the relay. The company reached its decision “after observing the situation surrounding the torch relay in various parts of the world.”

Protests surrounding the relay began in late March as the torch left Athens – Coca-Cola informed the Nagano organisers that it would not run the vehicle about a week later.

Lenovo had looked into running a vehicle for the Nagano torch-run, but cancelled those plans in late March. The company claimed that its reason for abandoning its place in the relay was related to the high cost of preparing the car itself.

The companies’ decisions to modify their plans came just hours after religious leaders at the Zenkoji temple in central Nagano, whose imposing bell was rung to open the 1998 Winter Olympics, said it could no longer be used as the starting point of the torch run in Japan.