Tokyo 2020: chief organizer to resign after sexist comments

Olympics: Mori apologizes for comment 0:46

Tokyo (CNN) -

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organizing Committee Chairman Yoshiro Mori will resign after sexist comments he made about women leaked to Japanese media last week, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported Thursday. , citing sources.

Mori told an Olympics board meeting last week that "board meetings with a lot of women take longer" because "women are competitive - if one female member raises her hand to speak, others might think they also need to talk, ”according to reports in the Japanese press.

"If you want to increase female membership, you will have problems unless you set time limits," she added, according to reports.

• Tokyo Olympics Will Go On Despite Pandemic, Says Organizing Committee Chairman

Speaking at a press conference the next day, Yoshiro Mori, the 83-year-old former prime minister of Japan, confirmed that he made the comments behind closed doors and said he regretted doing so.

CNN is seeking comment from Mori's office, which did not receive calls Thursday because it is a national holiday in Japan.

The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee press office told CNN it would refrain from commenting on Mori at this stage.

Organizers of the Games were due to hold a meeting of Council and Executive Board members in the Japanese capital on Friday to discuss the consequences of Mori's comments.

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Yoshiro Mori had ruled out resigning

Yoshiro Mori, who is the head of the Games organizing committee, had previously said that he was not considering resigning, but persistent public outrage appears to have forced him to change course.

Japanese women regularly face gender discrimination.

The country's gender gap is "by far the largest among all advanced economies," according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2020.

The report ranked Japan 121st out of 153 countries, partly due to its findings that women make up only 5.3% of board members in publicly traded companies and only 10% of those. parliamentarians, one of the lowest levels of female political representation in the world.

• Tokyo 2020: this is how covid-19 will be controlled during the Olympic Games

The Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games must now find a new leader as it rushes to open the Games on July 23 in a country struggling to cope with the growing number of coronavirus cases.

The Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games were delayed last year due to covid-19, and experts have said that it may not be possible to postpone the event again.

Tokyo 2020 continues despite pandemic

Japan's leaders have promised that the Games will take place, despite public opposition and mounting costs.

A survey last month by national broadcaster NHK found that 77% of people in Japan think the Games should be canceled or postponed further, largely due to the logistical obstacles that get in the way of hosting an event. so massive in the middle of a public health crisis.

The country's medical system has been overwhelmed, despite having the highest number of hospital beds per capita in the developed world.

Cases have more than doubled in the past two months to more than 406,000, pushing Japan's medical system to the limit.

As of February 4, more than 8,700 people who tested positive for COVID-19 were waiting for a hospital bed or space in an isolation center in 10 prefectures.

The week before, more than 18,000 people in 11 prefectures had been waiting, according to the prefectural health ministries.

CNN's Selina Wang and Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report.

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