MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2021) Tokyo Olympics President Yoshiro Mori is set to resign after facing backlash over comments perceived as sexist, the Kyodo News Agency reported Thursday, citing sources.
The 83-year-old former prime minister kicked up controversy earlier this month after he remarked that having women participate in meetings dragged on because they "talk too much."
Kyodo reported that Mori is expected to step down Friday at an extraordinary meeting of the Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee.
The agency's sources said that Saburo Kawabuchi, a former head of the Japan Football Association, will likely be the Olympic committee's pick to replace Mori.
Later in the day, Kawabuchi told journalists that he was ready to take over from Mori, according to Kyodo.
A poll conducted after the controversy broke showed that a majority, 60 percent, of Japanese respondents, believed Mori was not qualified to head the Games. Hundreds of volunteers quit their association with the committee following Mori's comments.
The news comes at a time when the fate of the Tokyo Games, postponed from last summer, lingers at the mercy of the pandemic.
The International Olympics Committee has largely ruled out canceling the ceremony altogether and is pressing ahead with options of either postponing it again or holding it without spectators.
