Tokyo Olympic ceremonies chief formally quits over "Olympig" insult

TOKYO, March 18 Kyodo - The organizing committee of this summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics has accepted its creative director's offer to resign, Seiko Hashimoto, head of the body, said Thursday, after he suggested a large-sized female celebrity dress as a pig for the opening ceremony. After a magazine report, Hiroshi Sasaki admitted in the early hours of Thursday that he proposed last year to a group of planning team members that celebrity Naomi Watanabe come down from the sky dressed in a swine costume to play the role of an "Olympig" for a segment of the Olympic opening ceremony. It is another blow for the committee, which has been dealing with numerous challenges to hold the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in just four months amid the coronavirus pandemic, while also trying to improve the games' image tainted by a recent sexism row triggered by its former chief. "It is very inappropriate to make comments that ridicule people's appearances," Hashimoto said in a press conference. "Mr. Sasaki has said in his statement that the comments were insulting, and I believe that it was something that should have never happened." The departure of the 66-year-old head director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Tokyo Games follows that of Yoshiro Mori, who stepped down from his role as president of the organizing committee last month after causing an uproar with sexist remarks. In the press conference, Hashimoto said the organizing committee will try to find Sasaki's successor as soon as possible, but the new creative director will still need to design the ceremonies largely based on his ideas given the limited time remaining until the games. ==Kyodo