President of Tokyo Olympics organizing committee resigns following sexist comments

TOKYO — Yoshiro Mori has resigned as the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee after sexist comments made last week in which he said women “talk too much.”

“As of today I will resign from the president’s position,” he said to open an executive board and council meeting.

“My inappropriate comments have caused a lot of chaos,” he said. He later added that he regretted making the remarks.

The resignation comes after several days of pressure from Japanese media and sponsors. An online petition calling for his ouster drew 150,000 signatures.

Mori, Japan’s former prime minister, has served as the Tokyo games’ chairman since the IOC awarded the games to the city in 2014.

But despite his resignation, Mori has left a mess in its wake — and it comes just over five months before the postponed Olympics are to open in the middle of a pandemic with public sentiment overwhelmingly against the games.

The executive board did not immediately choose a successor for Mori. CEO Toshiro Muto says that would come “as soon as possible.”

The frontrunner is probably Seiko Hashimoto, the current Olympic minister.