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On February 12 Beijing time, Yoshiro Mori, the chairman of the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee, accused women of talking too much and caused an uproar around the world, which ultimately proved impossible to resolve with an apology, and resignation became his only option. .
According to Asahi Shimbun, Mori said in a speech at the meeting: “In a meeting with many women, the meeting takes a long time. When the number of female executives increases, if their speaking time has not been it is very difficult to complete them with certain restrictions, which is very annoying. “
Yoshiro Mori, 83, tried to draw a line last week by retracting what he called “inappropriate comments,” but critics disagreed and Olympic sponsors disagreed and expressed growing concern.
According to officials, the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee did not initially expect the former Japanese prime minister’s statements to cause such repercussions at home and abroad, and expected him to continue serving as president. A high-ranking member of the committee initially thought public opinion “would calm down at some point.”
To quickly respond to mounting public anger, Yoshiro Mori held a press conference on February 4 to apologize for his comments the day before. However, in his address to reporters, he stated that he “has no intention of resigning,” which was widely accused of being insincere and sparked further debate over whether he is qualified to lead the Tokyo Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) initially stated that the dispute ended after Yoshiro Mori apologized for the discriminatory comments. But he later issued a statement again, saying Mori’s comments were “absolutely inappropriate” due to constant criticism from the public and athletes.
Yuji Nakamura, a sports management professor at Utsunomiya University, said: “President Mori’s comments that disparaging women are very problematic. Judging from his comments at the press conference, he has no regrets.”
Corporate sponsors who have been grappling with the added cost of the one-year postponement of the Olympics and Paralympics have also started to put off Mori, who has been the head of the organizing committee since the organizing committee’s inception in 2014.
According to people familiar with the matter, at the online meeting between organizers and sponsors on Monday, many companies instead of thinking that Mori’s apology was enough to end discussions on this topic, urged the committee to take further steps to address the issue. gender equality.
One manufacturer disclosed that it had received information from a customer threatening to boycott its products, while several other companies stated that they had received complaints from the public about their comments about Mori.
“We cannot make full use of the endorsement agreement to advertise, because it is not yet clear whether the game can be played. Therefore, these comments are very unpleasant,” said a sponsor official.
The president of Toyota Motor Corporation, one of the main sponsors of the Olympic Games, said: “(Yoshiro Mori’s comments) are different from the values that the company cherishes, which is really regrettable.”
According to people familiar with the matter, under mounting pressure for Yoshiro Mori to resign, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato and the organizing committee’s chief executive, Toshiro Muto, held a secret meeting on Wednesday night. They said Yoshiro Mori called Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Thursday morning to express his intention to resign.
Yoshiro Mori asked the 84-year-old former president of the Japan Football Association to serve as head of the organizing committee. The former president of the Japan Football Association, Saburo Kawabuchi, met with the media in Chiba, near Tokyo, and expressed his willingness to accept the request of the head of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee.
However, as the organizers approach the final stage of preparations, it is still unclear how much of an impact Yoshiro Mori’s resignation will have. Although a government official said that since most of the preparations have been completed, the impact on the Olympics is limited.
The nationwide torch relay is scheduled to begin next month. The Olympic flame sent from Greece last year will travel through 47 prefectures and prefectures in Japan ahead of the opening ceremony on July 23. A series of test activities are planned for the Tokyo Olympics in the spring. Japan will also decide whether to allow foreign spectators to enter the venue and the number of spectators allowed at each venue.
“I think the organizing committee got together thanks to Yoshiro Mori,” said the official in charge of the Olympic preparations in Tokyo. “But right now, resignation is inevitable.”
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