Olympic chief Yoshiro Mori
On Friday, February 12, 2021, the head of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, resigned following “sexist” remarks he made at a February 3rd meeting about including more female representation in the Committee’s work. Addressing the government’s request that female participation try to reach 40% representation, Mori complained that meetings would take too long because women “talk too much.” Stupid, sure. But the “outrage” reported by the media was mostly manufactured after Mori’s almost offhand remark went viral on the Internet.
The same day (February 12th) an editorial appeared in The Japan Times print newspaper supporting the resignation. Mori hung on for a bit because he’s a powerful back-room wheeler and dealer. But ultimately, he had to be sacrificed for bringing the worst thing onto Japan. He caused embarrassment. Japanese can’t tolerate embarrassment. Despite the continuing threat of the coronavirus pandemic, Tokyo is determined to go ahead this year with the postponed 2020 Summer Olympic Games. The foreign reaction to his words threatened the Games’ revenue stream, the foreign money bags behind the Olympics. It is those money bags and their peculiar individual cultural agendas that steered events. I mean, the imposition of issues that have been artificially amplified by social media to satiate the mythology of the Olympics.
Or not.
The photograph accompanying the February 12th editorial “Olympic chief Mori’s exit has been long overdue” is typical Japanese. 1) the English message “Wipe Out SEXSIST!” is incorrectly spelled, 2) it advocates murder - liquidate and eliminate anyone with unconventional, unpopular, or merely contrary ideas - and 3) it shows how a mountain has been made from a molehill. Japanese often make mountains out of molehills. They excel at that. Now, social media does the same with everything.
Perhaps Japanese have watched too much American television, thereby adopting foreign cultural fetishes.
But I could be wrong.