Tokyo opening ceremony’s director fired over old ‘joke’

TOKYO Olympics organisers have fired the opening ceremony director on the eve of the event after reports emerged of a past joke he had made about the Holocaust.

Earlier this year, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee resigned after making sexist remarks, and the Tokyo Olympics creative head followed after he made derogatory comments about a popular Japanese female entertainer.

Tokyo Games organisers fired Kentaro Kobayashi yesterday over a joke he made about the Holocaust as part of a comedy act in the 1990s that recently resurfaced in domestic media.

In a video clip of his 1998 act, Kobayashi was seen joking about a game he called “let’s play massacre the Jews”, prompting laughter in the audience.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organisation, earlier released a statement condemning Kobayashi’s past behaviour.

“Any association of this person to the Tokyo Olympics would insult the memory of six million Jews and make a cruel mockery of the Paralympics,” said Abraham Cooper, a rabbi, associate dean and global social action director of the centre.

Kobayashi himself said he regretted what he called a “stupid choice” of words.

Kobayashi says: “I offer my deep apology for causing trouble and worry for many people concerned as well as Tokyo residents and Japanese people when the opening ceremony is almost upon us.”