Tokyo Olympics Chief Yoshiro Mori Resigns After Sexist Remarks : NPR - 0 views
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Japan's Olympic organizing chief resigned Friday following a groundswell of criticism that his remarks more than a week ago showed disdain for women and that he tried to maintain the male-dominated status quo by installing his own replacement on the Tokyo Games organizing committee.
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Yoshiro Mori, 83, acknowledged that his remarks, to the effect that women's speaking time at Japanese Olympic Committee meetings should be limited because they talk too much, were inappropriate and had caused much chaos.
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But in other comments he appeared utterly unapologetic, insisting that his remarks weren't meant to demean women and any problems were largely a matter of interpretation. He also accused his critics of being disrespectful toward the elderly and the media for whipping up dissent.
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"There was a real sort of tug of war among the conservatives who wanted to continue with the status quo" and others pushing for change, said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo.
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But the status quo Mori embodied was no match for the mounting pressure from hundreds of Olympic volunteers quitting in protest, a flood of complaints from the public to Japanese organizers and corporate sponsors jittery about the additional uncertainty Mori's remarks inflicted on the games.
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With less than six months to go before the Tokyo Games are scheduled to kick off, more than half of Japan's population is under a state of emergency, hospitals are flooded with COVID-19 patients and vaccinations have yet to begin, although they are due to start this month.
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Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga weighed in calling for transparency in the selection of Mori's successor, and the organizing committee said it would form a panel with equal numbers of male and female members to handle the matter.