TOKYO (AP) – Yoshiro Mori’s long saga seems to be coming to an end.
Japanese news agency Kyodo and others reported on Thursday – citing unidentified sources – that Yoshiro Mori will step down on Friday as chairman of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee.
The move follows his sexist comments about women for more than a week, and a rare and subsequent public debate in Japan about gender equality,
The decision is expected to be announced on Friday, when the executive board of the organizing committee meets. Tokyo 2020’s executive board is overwhelmingly masculine, as is day-to-day leadership.
Mori, 83, at a meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee more than a week ago, basically said that women “talk too much” and are driven by a “strong sense of rivalry”. Mori, a former prime minister, gave a reluctant apology just days after his views were made public, but he refused to resign.
This is more than just another problem for the postponed Olympics, which made the risky choice of trying to open on July 23 amid a pandemic with 11,000 athletes – and then 4,400 Paralympic athletes.
More than 80% of the Japanese public in recent polls say the Olympics should be postponed or canceled.
Mori’s comments sparked outrage in many sectors and highlighted how far Japan is behind other prosperous countries in advancing women in politics or in meeting rooms. Japan ranks 121st out of 153 in the World Economic Forum’s gender equality ranking.
Although some people on the streets have asked for his resignation – several hundred Olympic volunteers say they are withdrawing – most decision-makers have not done so and have simply condemned his comments. Japan is a country that works extensively in consensus with politicians – usually the elderly and men – acting behind the scenes and leaking rehearsal balloons to feel the public feeling.
Here are some examples of comments and observations about what is happening as the pressure builds on Mori.
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AKIO TOYODA, president of Toyota Motor Corp.
Toyota is one of 14 alleged Olympic sponsors who pay around $ 1 billion each four-year Olympic cycle to the International Olympic Committee. The company rarely talks about politics, but this week President Akio Toyoda said: “(Mori’s) comment is different from our values and we find it regrettable.” Toyota and Coca-Cola are also the main sponsors of the torch relay, which will take place on March 25. Toyota did not ask for Mori’s resignation. but his comments received headline attention.
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YURIKO KOIKE, governor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Koike called Mori’s comments “a big problem” for the Olympics. She is one of the few powerful political women in Japan and has worked closely at the Olympics. She said she will miss an Olympic meeting next week with IOC President Thomas Bach, Mori, and the national government. “I don’t think that holding talks in the current circumstances will produce a positive message,” she said. “I will not attend the meeting.”
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KOICHI NAKANO, political scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo
‘Koike, as a natural populist, sniffs political gains by making use of her position as a prominent female policy. Koike is not a feminist, but she knows that being a woman in a very conservative, male-dominated Japan can be used to her advantage. By refusing to attend the meeting, she may indicate that she is more in touch with the widely shared feeling in Japanese society that Mori should resign. “
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THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
The IOC accepted Mori’s apology and said the case was closed. Then he waited almost a week to issue a more forceful statement and said his comments were “absolutely inappropriate”. He noted that the local organizing committee also called the comments “inadequate”. The IOC did not publicly ask for Mori’s resignation. Most of his statement on Mori focused on how he says he has improved gender equality in the Olympics over the past 25 years.
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MIZUHO FUKUSHIMA, head of the Social Democratic Party
Opposition leaders have been pressuring Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to convince Mori to step down. There are unconfirmed reports in Japan that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could replace Mori. Mori got his job in 2014, when Abe was prime minister.
“We must tell the world that Japan is a country committed to building a society with gender equality,” said Fukushima. “He (Mori) must resign.”
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AP writers Yuri Kageyama and Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
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