The show director of the Olympics opening ceremony has been dismissed, one day before
the event is due to be held.
Footage of Kentaro Kobayashi from the 1990s recently emerged in which he appears to be
making jokes about the Holocaust.
Japan's Olympic chief Seiko Hashimoto said the video ridiculed "painful facts of history".
The dismissal is the latest in a string of scandals to hit the Games.
Tokyo 2020 - postponed last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic that has constantly
threatened to derail the event - has seen three men forced to step down since the start
of 2021.
Earlier this week, a composer quit the team creating the ceremony after it emerged he
had bullied classmates with disabilities at school
In March, Olympics' creative chief Hiroshi Sasaki quit after suggesting that plus-size
comedian Naomi Watanabe could appear as an "Olympig".
He later apologised And in February, Yoshiro Mori was forced to
step down as the head of the organising committee after he made remarks about women that were
criticised as "inappropriate".
Mr Mori was quoted as saying women talked too much and that meetings with many female
board directors would "take a lot of time" This latest scandal has seen former comedian
Mr Kobayashi strongly criticised for a sketch he performed 23 years ago, in which he and
another comedian pretend to be children's entertainers.
In the sketch Mr Kobayashi turns to his colleague, referring to some paper dolls, saying they
are "the ones from that time you said 'let's play the Holocaust'", according to AFP news
agency.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga described the comments as "outrageous and unacceptable",
while Rabbi Abraham Cooper, of the US-based Holocaust research body Simon Wiesenthal Center,
said: "Any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims
of the Nazi genocide."
Mr Kobayashi also issued a statement responding to his dismissal.
"Entertainment should not make people feel uncomfortable.
I understand that my stupid choice of words at that time was wrong, and I regret it,"
it said.
Friday's ceremony, which Mr Suga said should proceed as planned, will officially kick off
two weeks of competition.
However, after the removal of Mr Kobayashi, organisers are now reassessing how to hold
Friday's event - which will only be watched by about 950 people in the stadium, in order
to minimise risks.
"With the opening ceremony being so imminent, we apologise for causing concern to those
involved in the Olympics, to the citizens of Tokyo and the Japanese public," Ms Hashimoto
said in a statement.
The scandals have done little to stop massive unease about the Games, which were postponed
from last year due to the pandemic.
The head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Committee admitted this week that he has not ruled out
cancellation, even at this late stage.
A recent poll found some 55 of people in Japan were opposed to holding the Games, amid fears
it could become a coronavirus super-spreader event, Reuters news agency reported.
Already, organisers are dealing with rising Covid case numbers among athletes and officials.
On Thursday, they said 91 people accredited for the Games have now tested positive for
the virus.
An increase in cases among Japan's population - only of a third of whom have been vaccinated
- has also led to a state of emergency being declared for the duration of the Games.
However, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated organisers
on Wednesday for having so far "done your best", telling them a "zero risk" Games was
not possible.
"The mark of success in the coming fortnight is not zero cases," he added.
"The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and
cared for as quickly as possible."
The first events of Tokyo 2020 have already begun, with the hosts Japan winning their
softball match on Wednesday.
[News taken from BBC] Please subscribe to my channel.
Thanks for watching.