Tokyo Olympics 2020: Ceremony Director Fired on a Holocaust Joke

Tokyo: The organizing committee at Tokyo Olympics recently fired the ceremony director of the tournament. The director was expelled due to his remarks on the holocaust during a comedy act in 1998.

Kentaro Kobayashi has been dismissed from his roles and responsibilities as the ceremony director, according to organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto, who made the announcement a day before the opening ceremony. He was criticized for introducing the line “Let’s play Holocaust” in a joke about the Genocide in his theatrical performance.

“We discovered that Mr. Kobayashi utilized a phrase mocking a historical tragedy in his performance,” Hashimoto added. “We deeply apologize for causing such an episode a day before the Tokyo Olympics inauguration ceremony, as well as for causing inconvenience and distress to many affected parties, as well as the people of Tokyo and the rest of the world.”

After being granted the Games in 2013, Tokyo has been dogged by controversies. Investigators in France are looking into allegations of payments paid to members of the International Olympic Committee to sway votes in favor of Tokyo. Tsunekazu Takeda, the Japanese Olympic Committee’s president, and an IOC member resigned two years ago as a result of the backlash.

The pandemic-affected Games launched this Friday with an opening ceremony. Although a few officials, dignitaries, and journalists attended the ceremony without spectators, this was to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Musician Keigo Oyamada, whose music was to be featured at the ceremony, was compelled to resign earlier this week due to the previous mistreatment of his classmates, which he bragged about in media interviews. His music was not included in this.

Following the release of a video clip and screenplay of Kobayashi’s performance, social media was flooded with criticism.

“No one has the right to insult the victims of the Nazi genocide, no matter how clever they are,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and worldwide social action director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in LA, USA.

He also mentioned that the Nazis crippled Germans with gas chambers.

“Any relation of this person with the ongoing Tokyo Olympics would be a tragic mockery of the Paralympics and should be considered as an insult to the suffering of 6 million Jews,” he stated.

Kobayashi is a former member of the famed comedy pair Rahmens and is globally recognized for comedy shows such as “The Japanese Tradition.”

Despite the opinion of the majority of its medical professionals, Japan is going forward with the Olympics. This is partly due to pressure from the International Olympic Committee, which is expected to lose $3 billion to $4 billion in television rights revenue if the Games are not held.

The stated cost of the Olympics is $15.4 billion, but government audits indicate that it is substantially more. Except for $6.7 billion, it’s all taxpayer money.

“For the past year, we have been planning to send a positive message,” Hashimoto stated. “At this point, there are so many occurrences that cast an appalling light on Tokyo 2020.”

The reputational impact was also acknowledged by Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo organizing committee.

“Perhaps these unlikable instances will have the wrong influence on the wonderful message we had planned to send to the world,” he added.

Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University, commented on Twitter that the opening ceremony pandemonium demonstrates a lack of multicultural understanding in Japan.

Yuriko Koike, the governor of Tokyo, claimed she learned of Koyayashi’s remarks from Hashimoto.

She expressed her surprise by saying, “I was astonished.”

The latest issues to haunt the Games were Kobayashi’s Holocaust joke and Oyamada’s departure. Yoshiro Mori, the president of the organizing committee, resigned after making sexist statements. Hiroshi Sasaki resigned as creative director of the raising and lowering ceremonies after recommending that a Japanese actress dress up as a pig.

Also this week, the American women’s wrestling team’s chiropractor, Rosie Gallegos-Main, apologized on social media for equating Olympic COVID-19 protocols to Nazi Germany. However, the squad’s chiropractor since 2009, will be permitted to stay at USA Wrestling’s pre-Olympic camp in Nakatsugawa, Japan, for the duration of their participation in the tournament.

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