New games chief may be picked this week

TOKYO • The Tokyo Olympics organisers could choose their new president as early as this week, a report said yesterday, after former chief Yoshiro Mori resigned over sexist remarks that provoked a global outcry.

Local organisers need to "urgently" pick a new president with just over five months left to prepare for the Games, set to open on July 23, amid the Covid-19 pandemic and are setting up a selection committee made up of an equal number of men and women, the group's chief executive Toshiro Muto said last week.

The selection committee will hold its first meeting at the start of this week, Nippon TV reported, citing unidentified sources.

Committee members will submit names of candidates in the days after and could select the new president as soon as this week, the report said.

However, the process could carry over into next week if there is a large number of candidates, Nippon TV said.

Among those being considered to succeed Mori are Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto, a pioneering female lawmaker and seven-time Olympian. She is one of only two women in Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's Cabinet but last week said she had not been asked to replace the 83-year-old.

Others who have been floated to succeed the former Japanese prime minister include Mikako Kotani, a two-time Olympian in artistic swimming and who serves on the Japanese Olympic Committee, and Upper House lawmaker Tamayo Marukawa, a previous Olympics minister.

The local media said another possible candidate was Daichi Suzuki, a former Olympic gold medallist backstroke swimmer who has served as commissioner of the Japan Sport Agency, an organisation aiming to promote sport nationwide.

Another person being considered for the role was Koji Murofushi, a former Olympic gold medallist hammer thrower who has been the agency's commissioner since October after succeeding Suzuki.

Mori's handpicked successor, former Japan Football Association president Saburo Kawabuchi, 84, last Friday declined the job after publicly accepting it earlier, news reports said.

Meanwhile, corporate sentiment over the Games remains negative, with over half of Japanese firms holding the belief that the Tokyo Olympics should be cancelled or postponed again, a survey by think-tank Tokyo Shoko Research showed yesterday, casting further doubt over its fate.

The survey, conducted online from Feb 1-8, showed 56 per cent of the 11,000 companies polled were of the opinion that Japan should cancel or postpone the Games, up from 53.6 per cent in the previous survey last August.

Only 7.7 per cent of the firms surveyed said the Games should proceed in full form as scheduled this year, down from 22.5 per cent in the previous survey.

Over 70 per cent of firms added that cancelling or postponing the Games would barely have any impact on their earnings.

REUTERS