A kindThe day before the opening ceremony, the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics temporarily had a final scandal. The chairman of the organizing committee, Seiko Hashimoto, announced on Thursday that Kentaro Kobayashi, the director of the opening event, had been fired. There has been a video before, in which the 48-year-old Kobayashi and another comedian made a joke about the Jewish murder in the Third Reich in 1998.
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In the sketch, Kobayashi said that according to media reports, since they talked about “playing the massacre”, there are still many characters cut out of paper. The comedian duo tried to make fun of the children’s series that was popular on Japanese TV at the time. Soon after Kobayashi resigned, the video was deleted from the Internet.
Hashimoto read Kobayashi’s statement at the press conference and apologized for it “Extremely inconsiderate” statement. In retrospect, he understood that this was wrong. However, on Japanese social media, there are also voices that the excitement has been exaggerated because the sketches have been misunderstood.
The news immediately triggered protests, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Rabiabraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center said: “No matter how creative, there is no right to make fun of the victims of the Nazi genocide.”
In front of reporters in Tokyo, Hashimoto and the organizer of the Olympic Games Toshiro Muto could not explain the incident. It is said that this video may not have been seen when Kobayashi was investigated. Hashimoto is responsible for this. Muto announced that the opening ceremony should be reviewed now.
Disabled classmate who was abused
For the organizers, it is not the first time such incidents of improper remarks or improper behavior lead to resignation or expulsion. Opening ceremony music composer Keigo Koyamada resigned earlier this week. The 52-year-old musician once apologized for abusing classmates with disabilities during his school days.
Earlier, a report from the 1990s surfaced in which Koyamada recounted his behavior at the time without regret. The chairman of the organizing committee Hashimoto admitted on Thursday that the composer broke up too late. After Oyamada, whose stage name is Cornelius, apologized for the first time, the organizers wanted to put the matter on hold.
In March, the Olympic Games had lost the then creative director of the opening and closing ceremonies Hiroshi Sasaki. Sasaki resigned after making unfriendly remarks to popular artist and fashion icon Naomi Watanabe. Last spring, during a “brainstorming” round, the advertising expert suggested collecting ideas online, thinking that the plump Watanabe could appear as an “Olympic pig.”
In English, “Olympig” is a word game with the word “Olympic”. At that time, Hashimoto himself admitted that at first he thought of accepting an apology, but later accepted his resignation. After the organizers wanted a simpler game and his predecessor gave up the position, Sasaki only took over the creative direction of the celebration in December.
Mori beim softball in Fukushima
As early as Sasaki, he was chairman of the organizing committee and former prime minister in February Yoshiro Mori, The core of resigning after making derogatory comments on women is that the 83-year-old Sen complained that women talked too much at committee meetings.
The connection between influential politicians and the implementation of the Olympic Games has not been interrupted. On Wednesday, he was seen participating in the opening softball tournament in Higashimachi, Fukushima Prefecture. Hashimoto proved this because Mori has secured some softball games in Fukushima, which was particularly affected by the tsunami disaster and the Gau of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant ten years ago. Hashimoto said that by visiting the stadium as an observer, Mori wanted to emphasize his feelings for the area.
