While the International Olympic Committee has made gender equality a priority by announcing strict parity at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the sexist remarks made on Wednesday by the president of the organizing committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Yoshiro Mori , spot. This 83-year-old former Prime Minister (2000-2001) complained thate “boards of directors with a lot of women take a lot of time”, because they have according to him “Hard to finish” their interventions, reported the Japanese newspaper Asahi. “Women have a competitive spirit. If one raises their hand (to intervene, editor’s note), others believe that they should speak out too. That’s why everyone ends up talking ”, he estimated during a meeting open to the press. Yoshiro Mori did not stop there and found it fitting to congratulate himself that the women members of the Tokyo-2020 organizing committee know “Stay in their place”.
Under fire from critics, Yoshiro Mori apologized on Thursday but dismissed the idea of resigning. The hashtags “enough is enough”, “misogyny” or “we demand the resignation of Yoshiro Mori” have also risen among the trends on Twitter this Thursday in Japan. Renho Murata, a parliamentary opposition figure who only uses his first name in his political career, called “shameful” the words of the president of the committee, while Kaori Yamaguchi, former judoka and member of the Japanese Olympic committee, judged them “unfortunate”. “Gender equality is supposed to be a prerequisite for organizing the Tokyo Games”, added the ex-athlete.
“Against the spirit of the Olympic Games”
These statements “Went against the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games” and were therefore “Inappropriate”, admitted Yoshiro Mori at a press conference in Tokyo. “I would like to withdraw what I said”, he added, saying he wanted to apologize “To all those who have felt offended”. “I have no intention of resigning”, he said however, recalling his “Personal sacrifice for seven years” at the service of the organization of the 2020 Olympics, postponed for one year to this summer (23 July-8 August) but which appear to be more and more threatened because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
After his apology, the chairman of the committee appeared defensive and clumsy in the face of questions from the media. So when a journalist asked him if he thought that in general women talked too much, he repeated: “That’s what I often hear.” He also annoyed the press: “I don’t know, because I don’t speak not often with women lately […] You ask me all these questions because you want to write funny stories, right? ?» Yoshiro Mori also told a Japanese newspaper Thursday morning that he had “Spoken without thinking” the day before, and having been «Ground» for his remarks by his wife and daughter in particular.
“I didn’t mean to be contemptuous”
“I was trying to say that I was wondering about the general opinion according to which we must increase the number of women” in executive bodies, but “I didn’t want to be contemptuous of women”, he explained to the Japanese daily Mainichi. “It’s hard to say that in the presence of the television crew, but the Ministry of Education (Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) is harassing us so that women represent 40 % of boards of directors ”, he also launched Wednesday, according to this newspaper, in front of members of the Japanese Olympic committee. The committee announced last year its wish to have a board of directors composed of 40% women, against 20% currently. An important step towards parity that Yoshiro Mori obviously does not want to cross.
Japanese government spokesperson Katsunobu Kato declined to comment on the case, and Tokyo 2020 did not immediately respond either. This controversy is part of a society lagging behind in terms of gender equality. Japan is 121st out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum’s latest gender inequality report and 131st for the proportion of women in senior positions in business, politics and administration .
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