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AP PHOTOS: Tokyo Games open with pomp despite circumstance
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AP PHOTOS: Tokyo Games open with pomp despite circumstance
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Kobayashi is the latest high-ranking official to leave (AP)
The director of the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony has been sacked after historical footage emerged of Kentaro Kobayashi making jokes about the Holocaust in the latest scandal to hit the Games.
A clip was widely shared on Japanese social media on Wednesday showing the comedian Kobayashi in a 1998 TV skit which included the line “Let’s play Holocaust”, and there were strong calls for his dismissal.
The Jewish human rights organisation Simon Wiesenthal Center released a statement condemning the jokes, saying: “Any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims of the Nazi genocide . any association of this person to the Tokyo Olympics would insult the memory of six million Jews.”
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Monday that he had never “put the Olympics first”, as an opinion poll showed nearly 60 percent of Japanese want the Olympics cancelled less than three months before they are due to begin.
Japan has extended a state of emergency in Tokyo until the end of May and is struggling to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases, raising further questions about whether the Games should take place. Its vaccination rate is the lowest among wealthy nations.
International Olympic officials, Tokyo planners and Suga himself have insisted the $15.4bn event will go forward in “a safe and secure” way. Overseas spectators have been banned and planners issued an elaborate playbook of rules last month aimed at preventing coronavirus infections.
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