Tokyo Olympics Chief Steps Down Over Sexism Row
TOKYO (Dispatches) - Tokyo 2020 Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori resigned on Friday and again apologized for sexist remarks that sparked a global outcry, leaving the troubled Olympics searching for a chief five months from the start.
The resignation of Mori, 83, and a former prime minister, only months before the postponed Summer Games are scheduled to begin, will further erode confidence in the organizers’ ability to pull off the event during a coronavirus pandemic.
Among candidates considered to succeed him is Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto, media said. Hashimoto, 56, is a seven-time Olympian and pioneering female lawmaker. Her first name is based on the Japanese words for the Olympic flame and she was born just days before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics opened.
Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, sparked a furor when he said during an Olympic committee meeting earlier this month that women talk too much, setting off a global outcry for him to be sacked though he refused to step down.
The resignation of Mori, 83, and a former prime minister, only months before the postponed Summer Games are scheduled to begin, will further erode confidence in the organizers’ ability to pull off the event during a coronavirus pandemic.
Among candidates considered to succeed him is Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto, media said. Hashimoto, 56, is a seven-time Olympian and pioneering female lawmaker. Her first name is based on the Japanese words for the Olympic flame and she was born just days before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics opened.
Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, sparked a furor when he said during an Olympic committee meeting earlier this month that women talk too much, setting off a global outcry for him to be sacked though he refused to step down.