Yoshiro Mori is on tour with his new show -

Takashi Aoyama / POOL / AFP

A little advice in the preamble of this paper: bring handkerchiefs before starting to read what will follow because there is a high risk of bleeding from the eyes.

Invited to speak at a meeting (open to the press) with officials of the Japanese Olympic Committee, the president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee, Mr. Yoshiro Mori, was flashed at 320 km / h on the machismo highway.

“Boards of directors with a lot of women take a lot of time,” first complained Yoshiro Mori, 83, before expanding on his point without anyone inviting him to do so.

"If you increase the number of female executive members, and their speaking time is not limited to a certain extent, they have a hard time finishing, which is annoying," he continued, right in his moccasins. .

Women are competitive.

If one raises their hand [to speak], the others believe they should speak out as well.

That's why everyone ends up talking, ”he explained.

Laughs (absolutely not embarrassed) in the audience

"We have seven women on the organizing committee [of the Tokyo Olympics], but they know how to stay in their place," said Mr. Mori, former Prime Minister of Japan (2000-2001) then known for his blunders repeat.

According to the Japanese media Asahi Shimbun, which relayed these remarks, his remarks about women made some members of the audience laugh.

Asked by AFP, the Tokyo-2020 press service was not immediately available for a reaction to Mr. Mori's reported comments.

Japan lags behind on gender equality, ranking a painfully 121st place out of 153 countries in the latest World Economic Forum's gender report, and 131st for the proportion of women in positions of responsibility in business, politics and administration.

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