TOKYO – It was the funny idea of a few people.
For the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, its creative director, Hiroshi Sasaki, imagined a popular oversized comedian and stylist, Naomi Watanabe, adorned with pig ears, falling from the sky like an Olympic messenger. Or, as he said, an “Olympig”.
On Thursday, the day after a Japanese magazine revealed that Sasaki, 66, had shared this idea with colleagues a year ago, he resigned and apologized. His departure came weeks after the chairman of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, Yoshiro Mori, 83, stepped down after being widely criticized for saying that women talk too much at meetings.
In response to the outrage at Mr. Mori, the organizing committee has been fighting just a few months before the Games began to put women in leadership positions in an attempt to rectify their image as a boring “old club”.
Sasaki’s quick resignation was a stark contrast to Mori’s departure. Although Mori quickly apologized for his sexist comment, he initially said he would not resign and none of the main Japanese government officials demanded that he leave.
He ended up resigning more than a week later, after online petitions to remove him, protests from lawmakers in opposition parties and concerns from some Olympic sponsors.
In the case of Sasaki, a former advertising executive who was in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies in December, he submitted his resignation just hours after the article appeared on the website of Shukan Bunshun, a weekly magazine.
Sasaki said in a statement on Thursday that he made his point in a group chat with colleagues on a messaging app. Several criticized his idea as an insult, he said, and he cited two of them.
“It is impossible to compare a woman to a pig,” said one. Another wrote: “Even if it’s a spontaneous idea, you shouldn’t say that.”
Sasaki said he took their answers seriously and withdrew his suggestion. But he did not decide to resign until reporters contacted him for the article.
“Now many people know what I wrote. I can’t apologize enough to Mrs. Watanabe, ”he said, adding that he was a big fan of her. “I have tried not to hurt others by making fun of diversity, gender and physical appearances. But it was a big misunderstanding. I realized my low conscience and insensitivity. “
Ms. Watanabe, 33, has gained prominence with her arrogant dance performances of Beyoncé songs, and she has been called “the Japanese Beyoncé” in the media. A champion of body positivity in a country that highly values thinness in women, she joked about feeling more liberated while eating ice cream in bed and how a muscular sumo wrestler personifies her ideal body type.
Watanabe, who hosted events for the Tokyo Olympics, said she was surprised to hear about Sasaki’s humiliating idea.
“I work with the understanding that my appearance is ridiculed,” she said in a statement through her agency, Yoshimoto. “In fact, I am happy with my figure. So, as usual, I would like to express myself as ‘Naomi Watanabe’, without overemphasizing the fact that I am fat ”.
She added that she wants a world “where we can respect and recognize each person’s individuality and way of thinking”.
Ms. Watanabe is the founder of a plus size brand, Punyus, and was named global brand ambassador for Kate Spade in 2020. This month, she said she was moving to the United States to build her entertainment career there, and that she was able to represent ICM partners and IMG models.
Seiko Hashimoto, who replaced Mori as chairman of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, said on Thursday that she was shocked by Sasaki’s comment about Watanabe, calling him “inappropriate and very regrettable”.
She heard about Mr. Sasaki’s comment from Shukan Bunshun article, she said at a press conference. The committee was in the process of verifying the report, she said, when Sasaki called her on Wednesday to explain what had happened and to offer her resignation.
“In light of his firm decision to resign and the fact that we have put gender equality in focus,” said Ms. Hashimoto, “I accepted and thanked him for his many contributions.”
When asked if she would have preferred him to stay, since the opening ceremony would be four months from now, Ms. Hashimoto said, “Yes, I had that feeling.” But after hearing her determination to resign, she added, she accepted.
Sasaki, who was already in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympic Games, had the Olympic Games ceremonies added to his portfolio after the event was postponed last year because of the pandemic. He said the Olympic ceremonies would be reduced to reflect the sacrifices of the previous year.
He also directed the flag delivery ceremony at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared dressed as Mario, the character of the Nintendo video game.
Makiko Inoue and Motoko Rich reported from Tokyo, and Tiffany May from Hong Kong.