Governing Bodies
84 YEAR OLD MAN SET TO HEAD TOKYO 2020 OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
With the embattled president of Tokyo 2020 Olympic organising committee, Yoshiro Mori set to resign on Friday, his replacement will be 84 year old Saburo Kawabuchi.
Mori is expected to resign over accusation of sexism. He was last week so accused when he remarked that “meetings drag on because women talk too much”.
That comment led to palpable anger both at home and abroad leading to calls that he should resign.
His apology over Nippon TV on Thursday has not abted the call for his resignation. Kawabuchi, his possible replacement, Kawabuchi, Sports Village Square gathered, is the former head of the Japan Football Association (JFA.)
Kawabuchi, 84, played for Japan at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and scored an equalizer in a game against Argentina.
He dedicated himself to building Japan’s professional J-League, which played its first games in 1993, and served as its inaugural chairman from 1991 to 2002.
After heading the JFA, he assumed the helm of the Japan Basketball Association, paving the way for the launch of the B-League.
Kawabuchi is a councilor on the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and was appointed as mayor of the athletes’ village in the capital’s Harumi area.