At a meeting of the Games’ executive board, Hashimoto said she would “take great responsibility as president of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games” and was “fully determined” to host a successful event that would have place between July 23 and August 8.
Hashimoto, 56, told reporters earlier that he had handed over the resignation of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as Minister of the Olympic Games.
“It was a big decision for me to resign as a minister,” Hashimoto said.
Hashimoto competed in four Winter Olympics as a speed skater and three Summer Olympics as a cyclist. She won the bronze – her only medal – in the 1,500-meter speed skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics.
Mori told an Olympic board meeting that “meetings with a lot of women take longer,” because “women are competitive – if one member raises his or her hand to speak, others may think they need to speak as well.” “, According to Japanese media reports.
“If you want to increase women’s membership, you would have problems if you didn’t set time limits,” he said.
Mori, a former prime minister, later resigned and offered his “deepest apologies” for his comments, adding: “My inadequate statement caused a lot of chaos.”
New storm of sexism
One week after Mori resigned, another male octogenarian leader from Japan angered him, saying misogynistic remarks.
Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) in the country, proposed on Tuesday to parliamentarians to be able to observe the key meetings of the party – but not to speak in them.
Two of the 12 members of the board of directors are women, while only three of its 25-member general board are women.
Nikai said it was important for women to “fully understand what kind of political discussions are taking place” at the directors’ meeting and the general council. “It’s about letting them take a look,” he told a news conference on Tuesday.
Online, his proposals have become a trending topic, attracting thousands of posts, with Twitter users robbing the remarks as deaf and sexist.
“How desperate … but I bet (Nikai) still thinks he’s doing something good here. Thinking about it, but look, we’re letting them (women parliamentarians) participate. But no, he can’t go as far as let them have a say, “Hiroki Mizoguchi, a prominent author on immigration issues in Japan, wrote on Twitter. “It’s like saying it’s better to have women on a date than not to be there at all … It’s really horrible,” he added.
Japanese writer Mieko Kawakami, best known for her feminist novel Breasts and Eggs, also criticized Nikai’s comments on Twitter as “unacceptable” and “misogynistic,” writing that members of the ruling male party will never understand the issue of gender equality.
“In their opinion, men will take care of women as long as women do not threaten them and remain on their bandwagon. Women are treated as second-class citizens forever here in Japan,” Kawakami added.
CNN contacted the LDP General Council office, which said “nothing formal has been decided” about women’s participation in key observatory meetings.
Over the last decade, demographic challenges and the growing number of women in higher education have begun to change slowly. Male-dominated Japanese leadership structures.
Reuters and CNN Selina Wang and Junko Ogura contributed to the Tokyo report.