TOKYO: A panel to pick candidates for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee’s new president to replace Yoshiro Mori, who is set to resign over his recent sexist remarks, will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, it has been learned.

The panel will choose several candidates on Wednesday after setting selection criteria, informed sources said.

The group, led by Fujio Mitarai, honorary president of the organizing committee, comprises less than 10 members who are members of the committee’s Executive Board. Around half of them are women and the rest men. Many of the panel’s members are athletes.

The organizing committee has said that it will not announce the names of the candidate selection panel’s members and the selection process until the new president is picked.

Mori came under fire both at home and abroad for his remarks early this month that meetings attended by many women are time-consuming. At an extraordinary meeting of the organizing committee on Friday, Mori announced his decision to resign from the post of president to take responsibility for the remarks.

JIJI Press