TOKYO — Spectators from overseas will not be allowed to attend the Summer Olympics in Japan, organizers said on Saturday, making a major concession to the realities of Covid-19 even as they forged ahead with plans to hold the world’s largest sporting event.
The Tokyo Games, which begin in July, were originally scheduled for 2020 but were delayed by a year because of the pandemic. The Tokyo organizing committee has been scrambling to develop safety protocols to protect both participants and local residents from the virus. Concern has been running high in Japan, with big majorities saying in polls that the Games should not be held this summer.
The decision, which the Tokyo organizers made jointly with the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee and the national and local governments in Japan, had been foreshadowed in the Japanese media for weeks.
Thomas Bach, the president of the I.O.C., has encouraged national organizing committees to secure vaccines for athletes, and he announced this month that China had offered to provide vaccinations for participants who required one ahead of the Games.
But not all local spectators will have the chance to be inoculated before the Olympics open on July 23. In Japan, where the vaccine rollout has been relatively slow, the population will not be close to fully vaccinated by the time the Games start.
The organizing committees will now have the enormous headache of arranging refunds for ticket buyers. In bidding for the Games, the Tokyo organizers said that 7.8 million tickets would be made available. Typically, about 10 to 20 percent of Olympic tickets go to international spectators.
Japanese fans could take up some of the slack. Local demand for tickets far outstripped the supply, at least before the pandemic.
The coronavirus has had a comparatively muted effect on Japan, which has had far fewer cases and deaths than the United States and Western Europe. The country has reported just over 8,700 Covid-19 deaths since the pandemic began.
Japan declared a widespread state of emergency in early January after a rise in infections. Since then, most areas have lifted the declaration. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced this week that it would be ended in Tokyo.
As part of its efforts to stop the spread of new, more infectious variants of Covid-19, Japan has also barred all new entries into the country from abroad since late December.
Those measures, however, have been lifted for Olympic athletes and some of their entourages. That decision has been contentious: Foreign students and workers are still unable to enter the country, and the foreign ministry has not given any clear indications as to when that might change.
Barring foreign spectators is unlikely to allay the public’s concerns about the Games, given that thousands of athletes, coaches, officials and journalists will still come for the event. Nearly 80 percent of the public wants the Olympics postponed or canceled altogether, according to some polls.
Regardless of the opposition, officials plan to officially kick off the countdown to the Games on Thursday with the torch relay, starting in Fukushima. As with the events this summer, the number of spectators will be limited.
International ticket holders will now have to go through the process of seeking refunds. Everen Brown, 60, a photographer in Salt Lake City and a superfan who has attended 15 Olympics, bought about $8,600 in tickets for the Tokyo Games for himself and his nephew.
They were looking forward to seeing beach volleyball, archery, fencing, diving and a men’s basketball game and had tickets for the closing ceremony. According to terms from CoSport, the broker that handled ticket sales for U.S.-based fans, customers will not be repaid for some fees — which Mr. Brown said could cost him about $1,200 — and refunds could take time.
“Since we are being barred, it is only right for them to make everyone whole and refund all of the money paid,” Mr. Brown said before the official announcement was made. What’s more, he said, after waiting a whole year, he wanted his refund quickly. “It would be real painful watching this at home on TV and knowing they have the money, and not knowing when you’re going to get it back.”
Few were surprised that the USWNT won its fourth SheBelieves Cup in six years on Wednesday, but the Stars and Stripes certainly made the march to the title more of a slog than anticipated.
– Rapinoe scores twice as USWNT win SheBelieves Cup – Andonovski: USWNT worked well as a unit vs. Argentina
Their opponents — Canada (missing seven key players), Brazil and Argentina (a late replacement for Japan due to COVID-19 concerns) — were not the quality of teams of past SheBelieves Cups, so I thought the tournament would be fairly one sided for the U.S., only that wasn’t the case. Canada looked quite good against the U.S. under their new head coach, Bev Priestman, Brazil was more organized under former USWNT head coach, Pia Sundhage, and Argentina? Well, Argentina was what we predicted… underwhelming.
With the Olympics still scheduled to begin less than five months from now, let’s reflect on what we’ve learned from this SheBelieves Cup:
A healthy reminder
For the U.S., not playing their best and still winning the title is always a good thing. Here’s why: These players will return to their clubs knowing that their world domination is not yet complete. In Orlando, they were sometimes exposed at the back, errors that better teams would punish.
The U.S. were not clean in front of goal, either — that could be the difference in a tight game against a better opponent. These players know all of this, and that will gently haunt them. They will watch the games back and work on getting things right, understanding that the SheBelieves Cup was a subtle, yet important reminder for them to keep that fire burning bright.
Roster Roulette
Speaking about keeping that fire burning, when USWNT head coach, Vlatko Andonovski, is asked about how many spots on his 18-player Olympic roster remain open, he says 18. Obviously, he has many locked in, but I do think due to the limited games and access to players and training camps, this Olympic roster is understandably going to take longer to decipher.
Roster roulette is a fascinating game to play, so let’s give it a try. Based on the last six games (three in SheBelieves Cup, plus Colombia twice and the Netherlands), and assuming Andonovski and his staff are taking two goalkeepers, six defenders, five midfielders, and five forwards, here are some scenarios (and the player options for that final spot in italics):
GK: Alyssa Naeher, Ashlyn Harris/Jane Campbell DF: Crystal Dunn, Becky Sauerbrunn, Abby Dahlkemper, Kelly O’Hara, Emily Sonnett, Casey Krueger/Tierna Davidson/Midge Purce/Ali Krieger MF: Julie Ertz, Sam Mewis, Lindsey Horan, Rose Lavelle, Catarina Macario/Kristie Mewis FW: Christen Press, Tobin Heath, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd/Lynn Williams/Sophia Smith
Questions still needing answers
Where is Carli Lloyd in her comeback after missing most of 2020 because of injury?
Lloyd had a goal and assist against Argentina and looked sharper than in her previous SheBelieves Cup game, but she missed a few excellent chances vs. Canada. Rapinoe’s comeback, after also missing most of 2020, seems clearer. She finished the SheBelieves Cup as the leading scorer and also leads the team with five goals in five games in 2021. Rapinoe has shown she can still impact games quickly and consistently. I think Lloyd will need to show that in the coming months as well.
How has Alex Morgan recovered from missing 2020 due to pregnancy, a knee injury and a COVID-19 diagnosis spilling into 2021?
I thought her performance against Brazil was a plus. Her touches were sharp, her movement good. She also scored a nice goal against Argentina.
Did Lynn Williams help or hurt her case for breaking into the final 18 Olympic roster based on her play in this SheBelieves Cup?
This is a tough question for me to answer because I love so much of what Lynn Williams does with her speed. She gets into great positions and turns defenders, which makes her a consistent threat to the opposition. She also does a ton of work on the defensive side of the ball. All great attributes, yes, but her final pass and her finishing are far too inconsistent, hurting her chances to become a regular starter.
If Williams finished some of those opportunities against Canada and Brazil, the games would have been less of a slog.
How many younger players can Andonovski afford to break in? Will they be ready for the Olympics?
Catarina Macario struggled in midfield vs. Canada, but excelled as a forward in both games against Colombia. Unfortunately, Macario did not get to see a lot of time in this SheBelieves Cup as she went back early to her club in Lyon.
Sophia Smith came into the game in the 65th minute against Brazil and while she didn’t make much of an impact, she played a beautiful ball for the assist on Alex Morgan’s goal vs. Argentina. I think this young player may be on the outside peeking in, but she is going to be fun to watch. She runs at players better than most.
Then there’s Kristie Mewis. Not a young player — she’s 30 — but she is new to the mix (or, more aptly, newly back in the mix) and has looked consistently sharp, with a goal and assist against Argentina.
Also to ponder:
– Would Andonovski consider taking five defenders, instead of six, since Julie Ertz can also play center-back?
If he did that and he took Dunn, Sauerbrunn, Dahlkemper, O’Hara and Sonnett, the U.S. would have 3 natural outside-back options in Dunn, O’Hara and Sonnett. That seems thin for that position given the tight Olympic game schedule and how often O’Hara has been injured. That is why I think he takes six defenders and Ertz in midfield.
Since he does have the Ertz option at center-back, I think that sixth defender will have to be a player who can play outside back.
– How about the midfield mix?
If Vlatko felt strongly about both Macario and Kristie Mewis, Macario could go as a forward, but that means other forwards (like Lloyd, Williams and Smith) might not make the roster. I cannot see that happening. I think Lloyd is going. Her work on on both sides of the ball is still one of the best on the team. Add in her strong mentality and finishing ability in big moments, and even at 39 years old at the Olympics, she can help the team.
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USMNT’s Rose Lavelle says that the white players need to “pull their weight” in the fight against racial inequality.
Their Superpower
With the Olympic rhythm being tighter than the World Cup schedule (two days rest at the Olympics, compared to three at a World Cup) and the Olympic roster being five players lighter than a World Cup roster, you can’t afford to bring players who may help the team or are not 100 percent fit. With only 16 field players and limited rest, EVERY SINGLE PLAYER must contribute, which is why the U.S. are the clear favorites to win the Gold Medal: their squad is much deeper than any team out there.
That is their superpower. The U.S. can field two line-ups that are quite different, yet both strong, and we’ve seen Andonovski do this throughout his tenure with the national team. Who else in this Olympics pool could do that without losing much at all in that second group? Maybe Great Britain. For the U.S., it will be less about who is starting and more about managing the rhythm of minutes played per game so that whichever combination is on the field, they are aggressively dictating the tempo.
Overall, I think the U.S. will take a big positive from this SheBelieves Cup because they remain undefeated under Andonovski, and let’s not forget: they did not concede a goal in this tournament, the first team to ever do that in the tournament’s history. (It just goes to show you the standard by which we judge this team’s performance, which I still think was far from their best.)
Andonovski’s last chance to evaluate players against other international opponents comes in the April FIFA window (by the June window, the team will be set). It’s just the environment needed to make those final judgements and then start rallying the Olympic team of 18 together.
Here’s to hoping an Olympics will indeed be played in July. Sending out my best YES-the-Olympics-will-be-played karma into the world right now. Do the same, please!
TOKYO — Bending to intense criticism from abroad and social media activism at home, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee on Thursday appointed Seiko Hashimoto, one of Japan’s two female cabinet ministers, to replace the previous leader, who resigned last week after making sexist remarks.
The selection of Ms. Hashimoto, 56, an Olympic medalist in speedskating, represented a stark generational and gender shift for the committee. The man she is succeeding, Yoshiro Mori, is an 83-year-old former prime minister who stepped down after saying that women talked too much in meetings. The man the committee had initially planned to turn to next — Mr. Mori’s handpicked choice — is an 84-year-old former leader of Japanese soccer.
The appointment of Ms. Hashimoto did not stray far from the entrenched establishment that governs Japan. But both Mr. Mori’s resignation and his successor’s ascension reflected the potent voice that Japanese people — especially women in a male-dominated society — have found online, swaying the course of what was viewed as an important symbolic decision.
“In the past, he would have been just criticized, and then the issue would have ended,” said Kazuyo Katsuma, a businesswoman and prominent author of best-selling books on gender and work-life balance, speaking about Mr. Mori. “But this time he had to resign because of a lot of criticism from women who raised their voices.”
Yet even as some praised the capitulation of Mr. Mori, others wondered whether Ms. Hashimoto’s appointment was much more than a cosmetic decision, made under duress, in a country that ranks 121st out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap index. Some of the most significant criticism of Mr. Mori had come from outside Japan, with many traditionalists inside the country defending him.
“It’s a very superficial appointment,” said Momoko Nojo, 22, an economics major at Keio University in Tokyo and one of the authors of a Change.org petition that called for systemic change in the wake of Mr. Mori’s remarks. “I think it’s kind of doubtful that this moment will make a great change to empower women in society.”
Nevertheless, women of an older generation suggested that simply mobilizing a group of younger activists was an achievement.
“I’ve not seen this much movement or energy for gender equality in Japan for a long time,” said Kikuko Okajima, 62, the chair of the Women Empowerment League, a newly forming professional soccer league for women in Japan. “So Mr. Mori created that moment to spur this discussion and movement.”
After Mr. Mori resigned last Friday, a second outcry on social media prodded the organizing committee to abandon its original choice of Saburo Kawabuchi as his successor. The committee swiftly changed plans after critics pointed to Mr. Kawabuchi’s age, his apparent support for corporal punishment of children and the seeming back-room nature of his selection.
Toshiro Muto, the chief executive of the organizing committee, then announced the formation of a new selection committee, divided evenly between men and women, to choose a replacement just five months before the Games are scheduled to open in July. Ms. Hashimoto seemed the clear leader from the start, though it took nearly a week to make her appointment official.
Ms. Hashimoto is a member of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s governing Liberal Democratic Party and has served in the upper house of Japan’s Parliament since 1995. In accepting her new role, Ms. Hashimoto gave up her cabinet post as minister for the Olympics and for gender equality.
Speaking on Thursday afternoon after she was officially appointed, Ms. Hashimoto said her first priority would be to implement measures to protect against the coronavirus at the Summer Games so that “both the Japanese people and people from abroad will think that the Tokyo Games are safe and secure.”
In a news conference that evening, Ms. Hashimoto spoke directly to athletes, saying that as a former Olympian herself, she wanted them to “perform on this dream stage without hesitation.”
She also acknowledged that she was taking up the post after a scandal stemming from her predecessor’s sexist remarks — comments that raised questions about the organizing committee’s commitment to gender equality. She said she would work to establish a “gender equality promotion team” within the month.
In a statement, the selection committee said it had chosen Ms. Hashimoto because of her “deep knowledge of sport, an understanding of the issue of gender equality and experience working to achieve it, international experience and perspective, and a thorough understanding of preparations for the Games.”
Ms. Hashimoto is no stranger to being a pioneer in male-dominated spaces. She was the second member of Parliament to give birth while in office, and in order to accommodate her, Parliament changed its rules to allow members to take time off for childbirth. Ms. Hashimoto took a week’s leave when her daughter was born.
As an Olympian, Ms. Hashimoto was selected for a total of seven Summer and Winter Games in the 1980s and ’90s, competing in speedskating and cycling. She won a bronze medal in the 1,500-meter speedskating event at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, in 1992, becoming one of the first two Japanese women to win a medal at a Winter Games.
Ms. Hashimoto entered politics when Mr. Mori was secretary-general of the Liberal Democrats, and she joined his political faction, one of a handful of influential groupings that can determine the careers of lawmakers in Japan.
“I think Ms. Hashimoto was selected so that Mr. Mori’s influence can be maintained,” said Atsuo Ito, an independent political analyst and former staff member for both the Liberal Democrats and the opposition Democratic Party. “She’s a puppet of Mr. Mori.”
This week, her party created another storm over gender equality, when Toshihiro Nikai, 82, the current secretary-general, said he would invite women to observe the party’s executive board meeting but not allow them to speak.
Ms. Nojo, a leader in No Youth, No Japan, a nonprofit group, said that Ms. Hashimoto had done important work on gender equality: pushing to make the morning-after birth control pill available as an over-the-counter drug at pharmacies, helping establish one-stop centers for victims of sexual violence and advocating that women be allowed to keep their surnames after marriage.
“We think it’s quite a bit of a loss not having her in the cabinet,” Ms. Nojo said.
Still, Kazuko Fukuda, a women’s rights activist who was another author of the petition, said she was glad the Olympic committee had ultimately “really valued the people’s voices” when abandoning its initial selection of Mr. Kawabuchi.
“It seemed like it was already decided without any meeting or discussion,” Ms. Fukuda said. “For a long time, everything was decided at the dinner table after work, so that many people who have to do care work, mainly women, could not join the important decision-making process, which really disservices women.”
Japanese women who have been watching the scandal unfold said they saw some hope in the choice of Ms. Hashimoto — or at least the retreat from another older man.
“It’s a step in the right direction, because we’re talking about it,” said Robin Narimatsu, 45. “Just growing up in Tokyo, all these misogynistic views are so entrenched in our society that most people don’t notice it.”
“It’s so normal for all the decision makers to be middle-aged or old men,” said Ms. Narimatsu, who sits on the board of her father’s restaurant and real estate business. “I feel like people are finally recognizing and seeing it as a potential problem.”
Makiko Inoue and Hisako Ueno contributed reporting.
In a Games executive board meeting, Hashimoto said she would “bear a heavy responsibility as chair of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics” and was “fully determined” to hold a successful event, set to take place between July 23 and August 8.
Hashimoto, 56, told reporters earlier Thursday that she had handed in her resignation as Olympics Minister to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
“It was a big decision for me to resign as minister,” Hashimoto said.
Hashimoto competed in four Winter Olympics as a speed skater and three Summer Olympics as a cyclist. She won bronze — her only medal — in the 1,500-meter speed skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics.
Her appointment as the Tokyo 2020 chief comes after Yoshiro Mori, 83, stepped down from the role last week over sexist remarks he made about women.
Mori said at an Olympic board of trustees meeting that “meetings with lots of women take longer” because “women are competitive — if one member raises their hand to speak, others might think they need to talk too,” according to Japanese media reports.
“If you want to increase female membership, you would be in trouble unless you put time limits in place,” he is reported to have added.
Mori, a former prime minister, later resigned and offered his “deepest apologies” for his comments adding, “my inappropriate statement has caused a lot of chaos.”
New sexism storm
A week after Mori resigned, another male octogenarian leader in Japan attracted ire by spouting misogynistic remarks.
Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of the country’s leading Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), on Tuesday proposed that women lawmakers should be able to observe the party’s key meetings — but not speak in them.
The 82-year-old’s plan to allow five female lawmakers to observe the party’s main gatherings was a response to criticism that the LDP’s board is dominated by men, according to Reuters. On February 15, Tomomi Inada, who was Japan’s second female defense minister, had written to Nikai with suggestions on how to promote women within the party and ensure they were more involved in policy making.
Two of the party’s 12-member board are women, while only three of its 25-member general council are female.
Nikai said it was important for the women to “fully understand what kind of political discussions are happening” at the directors’ meeting and the general council. “It’s about letting them take a look,” he added, at a news conference on Tuesday.
Online, his proposals became a trending topic attracting thousands of posts, with Twitter users lambasting the remarks as tone deaf and sexist.
“How hopeless … but I bet (Nikai) still thinks he’s doing something good here. Thinking, but look, we’re letting them (the female lawmakers) attend. But nope, it can’t go as far as letting them have a say,” tweeted Hiroki Mizoguchi, a prominent author on immigration issues in Japan. “It’s like he’s saying it’s better having women at the meeting than not there at all … It’s really horrific,” he added.
Japanese writer Mieko Kawakami, best-known for her feminist novel Breasts and Eggs,alsoblasted Nikai’s comments on Twitter as “unacceptable” and “misogynistic,” writing that male ruling party members will never understand the issue of gender equality.
“According to their views, men will take care of women as long as women don’t threaten them and stay on their lane. Women are treated as second-class citizens forever here in Japan,” Kawakami added.
CNN has reached out to the office of the LDP General Council, which said that “nothing has been officially decided” about women joining key meetings as observers.
Globally, politics remains one of the most male-dominated spheres in society. Only 25% of all national parliamentarians were women as of October 2020, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global organization of national parliaments.
But in Japan, that figure is even lower. Only 46 of 465 lower house lawmakers are women — that’s fewer than 10%, compared to a 20% average in Asia, as of October.
Over the past decade, demographic challenges and the growing number of women in higher education have slowly started to changeJapan’s male-dominated management structures.
But while women account for 51% of the Japanese population, according to 2018 World Bank data, the country is ranked 121 out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum’s latest global gender gap index.
Reuters and CNN’s Selina Wang and Junko Ogura contributed to this report from Tokyo.
TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee on Thursday appointed Seiko Hashimoto, Japan’s cabinet minister in charge of the Olympics and gender equality, to replace Yoshiro Mori, 83, who resigned last week in the wake of an international firestorm over sexist remarks.
The selection of Ms. Hashimoto, 56, an Olympic medalist in speedskating, represents a stark generational and gender shift for the committee, which had initially planned to name another octogenarian male leader, Saburo Kawabuchi, a former head of the governing body for Japanese soccer, as Mr. Mori’s replacement.
Although the choice did not stray far from the establishment, both Mr. Mori’s resignation and Ms. Hashimoto’s appointment reflected the growing power of social media and Japanese activists to sway the course of what was seen as an important symbolic decision.
“In the past, he should have been just criticized, and then the issue would have ended,” said Kazuyo Katsuma, a former businesswoman and prominent author of best-selling books on gender and work-life balance, speaking about Mr. Mori. “But this time he had to resign because of a lot of criticism from women who raised their voices.”
A public outcry on social media also prodded the organizing committee to abandon its original choice of a successor.Last week, after Mr. Kawabuchi, 84, told reporters that he was prepared to accept an offer to succeed Mr. Mori, the organizing committee swiftly changed plans after critics pointed toMr. Kawabuchi’s age, his apparent support for corporal punishment of children and the fact that he had been handpicked by Mr. Mori himself.
After Mr. Mori’s resignation last Friday, Toshiro Muto, chief executive of the organizing committee, announced the formation of a new selection committee, comprised half of men and half of women, to choose a successor just five months before the Games are scheduled to open in July.
A number of names had surfaced in the Japanese media, but Ms. Hashimoto always seemed to be the clear leader.
Ms. Hashimoto is a member of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s governing Liberal Democratic Party and has served in the upper house of Japan’s Parliament since 1995. In accepting the job as president of the Olympic organizing committee, Ms. Hashimoto gives up her cabinet post, halving the number of women in Mr. Suga’s cabinet.
Speaking on Thursday afternoon after she was officially appointed by the executive board of the Tokyo organizing committee, Ms. Hashimoto said her first priority would be to implement measures to protect against the coronavirus at the Summer Games so that “both the Japanese people and people from abroad will think that the Tokyo Games are safe and secure.”
But she acknowledged that she was taking up the post after a scandal stemming from her predecessor’s sexist remarks — comments that had raised questions about the organizing committee’s commitment to gender equality.
She said she would work to establish a “gender equality promotion team” within the month.
Ms. Hashimoto is not a stranger to being a pioneer as a woman in male-dominated spaces. She was the second member of Parliament to give birth while in office, and in order to accommodate her, Parliament changed its rules to allow members to take time off for childbirth. Ms. Hashimoto took a week’s leave when her daughter was born.
As an Olympian, Ms. Hashimoto competed in a total of seven Summer and Winter Olympic Games in the 1980s and ’90s, competing in speedskating and cycling. She won a bronze medal in the 1,500-meter speedskating event at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, in 1992.
Ms. Hashimoto entered politics when Mr. Mori was secretary-general of the Liberal Democrats, and she joined his political faction, one of a handful of influential groupings that can determine the careers of lawmakers in Japan.
“I think Ms. Hashimoto was selected so that Mr. Mori’s influence can be maintained,” said Atsuo Ito, an independent political analyst and former staff member for both the Liberal Democrats and the opposition Democratic Party. “She’s a puppet of Mr. Mori.”
Kazuko Fukuda, a women’s rights activist and one of the authors of a Change.org petition that had criticized Mr. Mori’s remarks, said she was glad the Olympic committee had ultimately “really valued the people’s voices” and changed course after its initial selection to replace Mr. Mori.
“It seemed like it was already decided without any meeting or discussion,” Ms. Fukuda said. “For a long time, everything was decided at the dinner table after work, so that many people who have to do care work, mainly women, could not join the important decision-making process, which really disservices women.”
Japanese women who have been watching the scandal unfold said they saw some hope in the choice of Ms. Hashimoto — or at least the retreat from another aged man.
“It’s a step in the right direction because we’re talking about it,” said Robin Narimatsu, 45. “Just growing up in Tokyo, all these misogynistic views are so entrenched in our society that most people don’t notice it.”
“It’s so normal for all the decision makers to be middle-aged or old men,” said Ms. Narimatsu, who sits on the board of her father’s restaurant and real estate business and is raising two teenagers. “I feel like people are finally recognizing and seeing it as a potential problem.”
Mori expressed his “deepest apologies” on Friday and said he would hand in his resignation by the end of the day, acknowledging that his “inappropriate statement has caused a lot of chaos.”
“The important thing is that the Olympic Games are held in July,” Mori said. “If I am going to be a distraction to organizing the Games by being in my position, I think that is a situation we should avoid.”
Mori, a former Japanese Prime Minister, has been under fire since last week, when he said that “board meetings with lots of women take longer” because “women are competitive — if one member raises their hand to speak, others might think they need to talk too,” according to reports in the Japanese press.
Speaking at a news conference last week, the 83-year-old confirmed he made the remarks behind closed doors and said he was sorry for doing so. He initially said he was not considering stepping down, but was forced to change course due to the continue public outrage in Japan, where women regularly face gender discrimination in the workplace and when seeking positions of power.
Japan’s country’s gender gap is “by far the largest among all advanced economies,” according to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Report. The report ranked Japan 121 out of 153 countries, in part due to its findings that women only make up 5.3% of board members on listed companies and only 10% of parliamentarians, one of the lowest levels of female political representation in the world.
Mori said Friday that he “didn’t mean for (my comments) to neglect the women but I guess that it was broadcasted in that way.”
“I actually worked a lot to allow the women to voice out,” said Mori, who is the head of the organizing committee for the Games. “I appointed the women to give them an opportunity to state what they wanted to state,” he said. “I have no intention of neglecting women at all.”
Mori did, however, say he took offense to people who called him a “rougai,” a Japanese term that can be used to imply that the elderly are of no use and in fact a hindrance to society.
The term has become more popular in fast-graying Japan, where more than 20% of the population is older than 65. Birth rates have been declining for years, leaving society with fewer young and working-aged people to support an increasingly elderly population in need of healthcare and pensions.
“I don’t like the word,” he said. “The elderly have worked hard to support this society and it’s quite frustrating when the elderly are neglected.”
The race to the Games
The Olympic Organizing Committee must now find a new leader as it races to open the Games on July 23 in a country struggling to cope with rising coronavirus case numbers. The Summer Olympics and Paralympics were delayed last year due to Covid-19, and experts have said it may not be possible to postpone the event again.
Japan’s leaders have vowed the Games will be held, despite increasing public opposition and rising costs. A poll last month by national broadcaster NHK found that 77% of people in Japan think the Games should be canceled or further postponed, largely due to the logistical hurdles that stand in the way of hosting such a massive event in the middle of a public health crisis.
The country’s medical system has been overwhelmed, even though it has the most hospital beds per capita in the developed world. Cases have more than doubled in the past two months to more than 406,000, stretching Japan’s medical system to the brink.
As of February 4, more than 8,700 people who tested positive for Covid-19 were waiting for a hospital bed or space at an isolation center in 10 prefectures. The week before, more than 18,000 people across 11 prefectures were waiting, according to the prefectures’ health ministries.
TOKYO (AP) — The long saga of Yoshiro Mori appears to be near the end.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency and others reported on Thursday — citing unnamed sources “familiar with the matter” — that Yoshiro Mori will step down on Friday as the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee.
The move follows his sexist comments about women more than a week ago, and an ensuing and rare public debate in Japan about gender equality. They also come just over five months before the Olympics are to open.
A decision is expected to be announced on Friday when the organizing committee’s executive board meets. The executive board is overwhelming male, as is the day-to-day leadership.
The 83-year-old Mori, in a meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee more than a week ago, essentially said women “talk too much” and are driven by a “strong sense of rivalry.” Mori, a former prime minister, gave a grudging apology a few days after his opinions were reported but declined to resign.
This is more than just another problem for the postponed Olympics, which have made the risky choice of trying to open on July 23 in the middle of a pandemic with 11,000 athletes — and later, 4,400 Paralympic athletes.
More than 80% of the Japanese public in recent polls say the Olympics should be postponed or canceled.
Mori’s remarks have drawn outrage from many quarters and have put the spotlight on how far Japan lags behind other prosperous countries in advancing women in politics or the boardrooms. Japan stands 121st out of 153 in the World Economic Forum’s gender equality rankings.
Though some on the street have called for him to resign — several hundred Olympic volunteers say they are withdrawing — most decision makers have stopped short of this and have simply condemned his remarks. Japan is a country that works largely on consensus with politicians — often elderly and male — acting behind the scenes and leaking trial balloons to sense public sentiment.
His replacement is reported to be 84-year-old Saburo Kawabuchi, a former president of the Japanese soccer association.
Here are samples of comments and observations about what has been playing out as pressure has mounted on Mori.
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AKIO TOYODA, president of Toyota Motor Corp.
Toyota is one of 14 so-called Olympic TOP sponsors that pay about $1 billion every four-year cycle to the International Olympic Committee. The company seldom speaks out on politics, but this week Toyoda said: “The (Mori) comment is different from our values, and we find it regrettable.” Toyota and Coca-Cola are also major sponsors of the torch relay, which is to being on March 25. Toyota has not called for Mori to resign. but its comments have received headline attention.
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YURIKO KOIKE, governor of Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Koike called Mori’s comments a “major issue” for the Olympics. She is one of the few powerful female politicians in Japan and has worked closely on the Olympics. She said she will skip an Olympic meeting next week with IOC President Thomas Bach, Mori and the national government. “I don’t think holding talks under 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 Tokyo’s Sophia University
’Koike, as a natural populist, smells political gains by making use of her standing as a prominent female politician. Koike is no 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 can indicate that she is more in touch with the widely shared sentiment in the Japanese society that Mori should resign.”
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INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
The IOC accepted Mori’s apology and said the case was closed. Then it waited almost a week to issue a more forceful statement and said his remarks were “absolutely inappropriate.” It pointed out that the local organizing committee also called the remarks “inappropriate.” The IOC has not called publicly for Mori to resign. Most of its statement about Mori focused on how it says it has improved gender-equality in the Olympics over the last 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 some 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 making a gender-equal society,” Fukushima said. “He (Mori) must step down.”
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Associated Press writers Yuri Kageyama and Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
TOKYO — Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee and a former prime minister, could be forced to resign after making derogatory comments about women earlier this week.
It is an additional problem as organizers and the International Olympic Committee try to pull off the postponed Games in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. They are set to open July 23.
The organizing committee said Thursday it did not have a statement but expected to have one later in the day.
Mori was reported by the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun as saying women talk too much in meetings during an online meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee board of directors earlier in the week. His comments have created a storm in Japan, where women are grossly underrepresented in politics and in board rooms.
In an interview with the Japanese newspaper Mainichi published Thursday, Mori, 83, apologized and suggested he could resign.
“I had no intention to disrespect women,” Mainichi reported him saying. “I believe I must carry out my responsibility, but if calls for my resignation grow, I may have to resign.”
He added: “It was careless of me, and I would like to apologize.”
Asahi reported him saying Tuesday in an online meeting: “Women are very competitive. When one of them raises her hand, they probably think they have to say something, too. And then everyone says something.”
His comment came when he was asked about the presence of few women on the board of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
“If we are going to have more women directors, someone has remarked, then meetings go on for a long time unless we restrict the comments. I’m not saying who that is,” he said.
The Tokyo Olympics he leads are already swamped with problems.
About 80% of Japanese in polls say the Games should be postponed or canceled in the midst of the pandemic. They also have spoken out on rising costs that might total more than $25 billion to put on these Olympics.
The move comes as questions persist over the country’s readiness to host the Olympics, which are scheduled to be held in Tokyo this summer from July 23 to August 8.
Eleven of Japan’s 47 prefectures are currently under a state of emergency that orders companies to facilitate work from home where possible, and requires restaurants to close by 8 p.m. Sports and entertainment events in Japan are also required to limit the number of attendees.
Suga told Japan’s Parliament Tuesday that he plans to extend the state of emergency — which is set to expire Sunday — until March 7 for 10 of the prefectures. The state of emergency is set to be lifted for one prefecture, he said.
That decision still needs to be finalized by the government’s coronavirus task force, and Suga is expected to hold a press conference Tuesday night over the state of emergency rules.
Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday reported 1,792 new coronavirus cases and 72 additional deaths, bringing the country’s total cases to more than 392,000 and more than 5,800 dead. Almost 50,000 Covid-19 patients are in need of hospital-level medical care as of Monday.
Around one third of confirmed cases are in the capital Tokyo, which on Monday reported fewer than 500 new case for the first time since December 28.
As the country struggles with its current spike, partly brought on by freezing winter temperatures, it is also grappling with mixed messages and coronavirus fatigue, having been among the earliest hit by the pandemic.
Unlike a number of other countries which have introduced lockdowns and social distancing measures, Japan lacks much in the way of legal powers to force compliance with the government’s orders.
Suga has been criticized for what has been perceived as his reluctance to take action to combat the spread of the virus. Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London said in January that Japan’s response is “too slow and confusing.”
“On one hand they encouraged domestic travel and eating out, on the other they just asked people to take caution,” Shibuya said. “The government is basically asking people voluntarily to behave properly, but does not do more than that.”
The Japanese government also said on Friday that it is determined the Games will go ahead following an unconfirmed report that a cancellation might be imminent.
On Friday, the Times of London, citing an unnamed senior member of the ruling coalition, reported that Japanese authorities had privately concluded that the Olympics could not proceed due to the ongoing pandemic. CNN has not independently verified this report, which officials have refuted
“Some news reports circulating today are claiming that the government of Japan has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will have to be canceled because of the coronavirus,” said the statement from the IOC.
“This is categorically untrue … All parties involved are working together to prepare for a successful Games this summer.”
In a statement, the Tokyo 2020 organizers said that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had expressed to them his determination to hold the Games, and that meetings were ongoing to ensure that they could go ahead while implementing thorough infection countermeasures and other precautions due to the pandemic.
“All our delivery partners including the national government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, the IOC and the IPC are fully focused on hosting the Games this summer,” the statement said. “We hope that daily life can return to normal as soon as possible, and we will continue to make every effort to prepare for a safe and secure Games.”
Speaking in parliament Friday morning, Suga said the Games “will be a symbol of humanity overcoming the novel coronavirus, and a chance to showcase Japan’s reconstruction from the devastating (2011) earthquake and tsunami to the world.”
“We are determined to work closely together with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, and the IOC to realize a safe and secure Olympics,” Suga said.
Other Olympic officials were also quick to deny the claims made by the Times.
“Unfortunately, I need to address unfounded rumors that Tokyo Games will be canceled, rumors that only create more anxiety for the athletes in our sports,” Australian Olympic Committee CEO Matt Carroll told reporters Friday. “The Tokyo Games are on. The flames will be lit on the 23rd of July 2021. This has been just reconfirmed again by the Japanese Prime Minister this afternoon.”
In a thread on Twitter, Canadian Olympic chief David Shoemaker said his team was “unaware of any decision taken by the Japanese government as is being reported.”
“The Canadian Olympic Committee has confidence that the Games can be staged safely and successfully given what has been learned in sport over the last several months and the emphasis the IOC and Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee have placed on Covid-19 countermeasures,” he said. “We continue in our preparation to participate at Tokyo 2020 with a focus on the health and safety of our athletes, their families, and their communities.”
Saturday marks six months until the postponed Games are due to begin.
