The president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee, Yoshiro Mori, will resign over a sexist remark that sparked an outcry, two sources said on Thursday, while the former prime minister said he could not let the controversy drag on.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori attended a meeting on March 10 that included the deputy head of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) who tested positive for the new coronavirus this week, officials said. Mori, 82, has not been tested because he has no symptoms of the virus and does not meet testing requirements, an official from Mori's office said. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Mori on March 16, without providing details.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he didn't have the authority to demand Mori's resignation, the Jiji news agency reported.
Tokyo 2020 organising committee is not considering postponing or cancelling the 2020 Games despite the spread of coronavirus.
Japan will hold the Summer Olympics regardless of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic
Tokyo Olympics organisers added that they are working on more than 200 ideas to simplify and reduce costs for the rescheduled Games.
hashtag 'Mori, please resign' was trending on Twitter in Japan
Last month, the Tokyo 2020 Games were postponed to July 2021 due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday proposed a raft of measures to hold a streamlined Summer Games next year, including a shorter opening period for training venues and scaling back staff for the torch relay.
Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly and his deputy Rahul Dravid will be among 74 persons to be honoured with the Padma Shri.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee president Yoshiro Mori has told international federations that deciding who foots the bill for postponing the Games to 2021 will be a 'major challenge', Olympic news website insidethegames reported on Saturday.
Tokyo 2020 organisers received the Olympic flame in a scaled-down handover ceremony in the Greek capital on Thursday, amid the coronavirus spread that has cast doubt on the global, multi-billion dollar event. In a brief ceremony closed to spectators in Athens' Panathenaic stadium, site of the first modern Games in 1896, the torch was received by Tokyo Games representative Naoko Imoto.
Some 340 Japanese children will be unable to participate in the Olympic torch ceremonies for the handover in Greece and arrival in Japan due to precautions being taken against the spread of the coronavirus, Tokyo 2020 chief Yoshiro Mori said on Friday.
Nearly 80% of the Japanese public are now opposed to holding the Summer Games as scheduled this year, recent polls show.
The Tokyo Olympics had originally been scheduled for 2020 but were postponed by a year because of the pandemic.
The flame will be on show from Tuesday at the Japanese Olympic Museum, located next to the National Stadium purpose-built for the Games which were due to take place this year but were rescheduled for 2021 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Japan is preparing to host the Tokyo Summer Olympics as planned, the government's top spokesman said on Wednesday, amid speculation the Games could be postponed because of the coronavirus threat.
Bach said Tokyo was 'the best-prepared Olympic city,' in remarks at the start of a three-day virtual IOC session.
IOC President Thomas Bach has said the Games would have to be scrapped if the event cannot be held next year but Takahashi said cancelling them would have major financial implications.
Tokyo 2020 organisers will hold meetings with the Japanese government and local Tokyo Metropolitan Government in September to work through various scenarios.
Tokyo 2020 said it chose not to send the high-level delegation, which was originally set to include organising committee president Yoshiro Mori and Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto, to Greece due to the coronavirus.
In his first visit to any South Asian country after taking over the throne in 1990, Japan's Emperor Akihito and his wife Empress Michiko arrived in Delhi on Saturday.
The Tokyo Olympics are not contingent on the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus, International Olympic Committee member John Coates said. Australian Coates, the head of the IOC's Coordination Commission for the Olympics, said JMA president Yoshitake Yokokura's comment was an 'opinion'.
The International Olympic Committee has been advised by the World Health Organization that there is no case for contingency plans to cancel or relocate the Tokyo 2020 Olympics over the coronavirus outbreak, the IOC's Coordination Commission head said on Friday.
The president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee said she was shocked and surprised at its creative head's derogatory comments about a female Japanese entertainer.
The Japanese and Tokyo metropolitan governments, local organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have all sought to quash persistent speculation that the Games could be cancelled or postponed.
Decision on spectators by March, says Tokyo Olympics OC.
The new schedule means women's softball will kick off competition at 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) in Fukushima on July 21, two days before the Games officially open, with all events taking place a day earlier than the 2020 schedule.
The National Stadium, set to host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, is one of the venues that has been successfully secured for 2021.
Billiards and snooker launched an unexpected bid to win a spot on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics sports programme, saying sharp global rise in popularity helped their case.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said for the first time on Monday that the Tokyo Olympic Games may need to be postponed if the event cannot be held in its 'complete form' due to the coronavirus pandemic. Abe said that while cancelling the Games was not an option, a delay was now on the cards if that was the only way to hold the event in its complete form.
A softball game in Fukushima prefecture will give the Tokyo 2020 Olympics a symbolic start
Tug of war, sumo wrestling, surfing and frisbee throwing are among 26 sports leading the charge for an Olympic place.
The postponed Olympic Games will now begin on July 23 next year and run until August 8, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said on Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to plan and prepare for them properly this year. The Games were postponed last week - the first such delay in the 124-year history of the modern Olympics. The move was a huge blow for Japan, which invested $13 billion in the run-up to the event and raised $3 billion from domestic sponsors.
She added that Suga had encouraged her to make the Games successful but declined to say anything further until after a Tokyo 2020 executive board meeting later in the day, when an official announcement on the post was likely to be made.
Departing from the usual protocol, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife will receive Japanese Emperor Akihito and his spouse Empress Michiko who will arrive in New Delhi on Saturday on a six-day visit, their first to any South Asian country after being enthroned in 1990.
Gates said he was linking up with an Olympic Games for the first time to use it as a way to increase awareness of the SDGs and also urged Japan to become a world leader in aid and development.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday gifted a Gond art painting, a specimen of Sanjhi art form and a wooden hand-carved box to his fellow Quad leaders from Australia, the US and Japan, sources said.
Paralympics boss Andrew Parsons expressed disgust that Russian authorities had let down the country's clean athletes