A day before the official opening ceremony of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the organizers of the sporting events has dismissed the director in charge of the opening ceremony over his comments in the past about Holocaust.
Kentaro Kobayashi, 48, director from Kanagawa, Japan, joked about the Holocaust as a “let’s massacre Jewish people game” in one clip from 1998, previously made his name as part of a comedy duo dubbed Ramens.
The statement was made by Japan’s Olympic Minister, Seiko Hashimoto, in a press conference that she and other members of the planning commission would “review the entire program” on Thursday, the day before the ceremony. Hashimoto said she learned of Kobayashi’s offensive jokes Tuesday morning and that she regretted how long it took to fire the comedian.
According to the Minister, she said “I’ll have to make sure first of all to establish a structure of operations so that we will never trouble any more people”.
Prior to this event, few officials of the sporting events have been undefire due to the their comments in recent times. The Games which will be held without spectators will officially kick off in Tokyo on Friday, July 23.
The entire opening programme will be closely scrutinised again, organising committee chief executive Toshiro Muto said.
