On February 3, 2021, Mori Yoshirō, president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, spoke at an extraordinary meeting of the councillors of the Japanese Olympic Committee. He said: Josei ga takusan haitte iru rijikai wa jikan ga kakarimasu. “Board meetings with many women take a long time.” He also said: Minna wakimaete orarete. “They all know their place.”
The next day, he withdrew the remarks and apologized at a press conference. The remarks were criticized as contempt for women. On February 12, at a joint meeting of the committee’s councillors and directors, he announced that he would resign.