Tokyo (AFP)
Japanese Minister of the Olympics Seiko Hashimoto, 56, was appointed Thursday president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Organizing Committee, replacing Yoshiro Mori who had to resign last Friday after sexist comments that caused a scandal.
"I will spare no effort for the success of the Tokyo Games," Hashimoto said immediately after her appointment, coming five months before the planned opening of the planetary event (July 23 - August 8). last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
She added that the measures put in place during the Olympics to fight against the coronavirus, still threatening despite the arrival of the first vaccines, would be the "top priority".
Ms. Hashimoto also said she wanted to make the public, both in Japan and abroad, "feel that the Olympics will be safe."
Shortly before, she had presented Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga with her resignation from the government, in which she was one of only two women to hold a portfolio.
Mr. Suga "sent me kind words," she told reporters.
"He is hopeful that I can give all my energy to creating a unifying Tokyo Games for the Japanese people."
Ms Hashimoto quickly emerged as the overwhelming favorite to succeed Mr Mori, pushed out for saying in early February that women spoke too long during meetings, which he found "annoying".
- "Real progress" -
The words of this 83-year-old former Japanese prime minister had been strongly condemned, in Japan and abroad.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had belatedly judged that they were contrary to the values of Olympism, especially in terms of gender equality, and the sponsors of the Olympics had also increased the pressure on Mr. Mori.
After his departure, a joint council was formed to find a successor as soon as possible, while Mr. Mori had initially tried to be replaced by a relative, the former patriarch of Japanese professional football Saburo Kawabuchi, even older. than him (84 years old).
Minister responsible for the Olympic Games and gender equality since September 2019, also a member of the Upper House of Parliament since 1995, Ms. Hashimoto also has a long career as a high-level athlete behind her.
She participated in seven Olympic Games (four Winter Olympics and three Summer Olympics) in the 1980s and 1990s, as a speed skater and as a track cyclist.
She notably won a bronze medal in speed skating at the Albertville Games (France) in 1992.
Kazuko Fukuda, a women's rights activist in Japan, on Thursday welcomed Ms Hashimoto's appointment as head of Tokyo-2020 and the selection process.
"I think that the fact that they (the organizers of the Olympics, editor's note) have established five criteria to choose the new president, including an understanding of gender equality and human rights, represents real progress," responded Ms. Fukuda to AFP.
- An imposed choice?
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"Now we have to make sure that the gender equality policies in the country do not back down," added Ms. Fukuda, who participated in the creation of an online petition after Mr. Mori's sexist remarks, which collected a total of more than 157,000 signatures.
Ms. Hashimoto would have hesitated to accept the presidency of Tokyo-2020, according to several Japanese media.
Because the challenge that awaits him is immense.
A majority of Japanese are against the holding of the Olympics this year, fearing that the event will lead to an upsurge in the pandemic in the country.
Much of Japan, including Tokyo, has been under a state of emergency again since early January in an attempt to counter a new wave of the virus, which has been raging since late 2020.
The organizers of Tokyo-2020 have prepared a battery of measures and restrictions in the face of Covid-19, but without going so far as to impose quarantine or vaccination for participants in the Games.
The thorny question of the presence or absence of spectators, and of a possible maximum tonnage, must be decided in the spring.
© 2021 AFP