Tokyo 2020 Olympic Committee President Yoshiro Mori Will Resign

Yoshiro Mori. (Wikimedia Commons / Presidential Office Building)

JAKARTA - Tokyo 2020 Olympic Committee president Yoshiro Mori will resign over sexist remarks he has made saying women talk too much, as reported by Reuters from the Fuji News Network.

The comments made at the Japan Olympic Committee board meeting in the first week of February sparked firestorms at home and abroad, adding to new problems in the running of the 2020 Summer Olympics, which have been postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At a press conference held on February 4, Mori retracted his statement saying it was "inappropriate and against the spirit of the Olympics". However, at that time he refused to resign.

As previously reported, the President of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Organizing Committee Yoshiro Mori may be very sorry, knowing that his sexist comments now have become a big problem. Not only to himself but also to the Olympics itself.

Some 400 Olympic volunteers have resigned and 5.500 have filed complaints with local organizing committees, according to Japanese media.

"We take this very seriously", Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto said Tuesday morning when asked about the volunteers' resignation.

Daichi Oyama, 28, who resigned from volunteering because of the coronavirus problem, said it would be better for Mori to quit than every time he said something got worse.

“This is not just Japanese news, the whole world heard what he said and there was opposition that arose. That's a very embarrassing thing for Japan", he said.

The online petition demanding Mori's action has won 140.000 signatures so far. In fact, an editorial from the Mainichi Daily asked Mori to step down.

"This is not a problem that can be resolved with a repeal or an apology", wrote the editorial.

Besides the volunteers, the Tokyo Olympics sponsors were also disappointed by Mori's comments and chose to distance themselves. Nippon Life Insurance Company told Asahi Daily they were disappointed by the statement and had explained it to the organizing committee.

Meanwhile, the head of the Japanese Business Federation (Keidanren) which is influential in Japan, Hiroaki Nakanishi, who previously held back, also spoke up regarding this matter.

"I feel that's what some people in Japan actually think, it has become a habit in Japan to differentiate between men and women, but that principle is outdated. And, social media is very scary, given how quickly comments are shared and circulated online", he said according to TV Asahi.