Twelve women on board of Tokyo Olympics committee

The Tokyo Olympics which were supposed to be held in 2020 was canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic, it was being re-scheduled to 2021 and the Tokyo Olympics 2021 is nearing.

Tokyo Olympics is said to be held from July 23 and Paralympics from August 24 next month.

The ‘Organizing Committee of the Olympics’ is planning to arm these two international sports events.

Twelve new women were appointed to the executive board of the Tokyo Olympics right behind the appointment of the female president.

19 including the existing seven women! This brings the percentage of women on the board to 42 percent. The total number of members of the board is 45.

The lightning appointments were made by Seiko Hashimoto, the newly elected Women President of the Organizing Committee of the Olympics.

Hashimoto took the place of the president, as the 83-year-old Yashiro Mori was forced to resign after his absurd comments about women; he lost his presidency.

He commented that “women talk too much at board meetings”. They really don’t know when to stop and it is annoying. He also added that with women it would take a lot of time to finish the meetings. This became a huge controversy in Japan as well as abroad.

Women’s commissions and associations in Japan condemned him for his sexist remark.

 University students staged protests demanding Yashiro’s resignation.

He later apologized for his rude remarks and stated “he doesn’t talk to women much” and also said that the Olympics must go on with or without him and decided to step down from his position as president.

Seiko Hashimoto, who took over the president position within ten days of his resignation, appointed more women into the boardroom in response to the “talk more” comment, said there would be a few more additions to gender equality.

She is not only the president of the committee. Seiko Hashimoto is Former Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games; she was also an athlete who won a bronze medal in Speed Skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics – Women’s 1500m.

Hashimoto is making attempts to achieve women’s empowerment in the Olympics’ management powers.

Hashimoto encouraged women at her first board meeting, “If we work fast and achieve strong results, we will prove what we are.” According to the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks 121st out of 135 countries in terms of gender equality.

Hashimoto took over the post of committee president last week following a sudden vacancy.

In her first speech as President, she said that she was going to increase the number of women on the executive board.

As mentioned, next Wednesday Hashimoto appointed twelve women as board members at once! The total now stands at nineteen, including the first seven women on the board.

Hashimoto increased the total number of members on the board from 35 to 45 just to make a place for these twelve.

 Her decision for women’s empowerment and gender equality was also an appropriate response to the comments made by the old President Mori on women!

The forum also opined that increasing the number of women in boardrooms across all sectors was one way to bridge that gap.

Hashimoto said the board would make some changes before the Olympic torch begins its journey on the 25th of this month.

 The board currently has seven vice-presidents, only one of whom is a woman. Hashimoto is also likely to increase the number of women vice presidents. She said the matter would be revealed on Friday.

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