TOKYO: The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee Thursday selected Seiko Hashimoto, Japanese minister for the games, as its president to replace Yoshiro Mori, who quit over a gaffe, with the development coming at a crucial time when the fate of the sporting events is closely watched amid the continuing spread of the novel coronavirus around the world.

Earlier on Thursday, Hashimoto, 56, tendered her resignation from the ministerial post to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who approved it.

After a panel of the Tokyo Games organizing committee picked Hashimoto, a former Olympic speed skater and cyclist, as its candidate for the president’s post, the committee’s Executive Board approved the choice of candidate. Then, councillors of the committee chose Hashimoto as a member of the board, and the board voted to elect her as the new president of the committee.

With the world closely watching whether the Tokyo Games will take place this summer as scheduled as the pandemic continues, a host of challenging tasks await Hashimoto, such as taking thorough measures against the virus. Only about five months are left before the start of the Olympic Games in late July, to be followed by the Paralympic Games, starting late in August.

“Resigning as minister was a big decision for me,” Hashimoto said, adding, “With the determination firmly in mind, I will work hard to hold the Tokyo Games successfully.” The events, originally scheduled for summer 2020, have been postponed for one year to this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hashimoto competed in a total of seven summer and winter Olympic Games. She won a bronze medal for women’s 1,500-meter speed skating in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. She won her first seat on the Diet, Japan’s parliament, in the 1995 election for the House of Councillors. She is in her fifth term as an Upper House lawmaker. She became minister for the Tokyo Games in 2019.

At an extraordinary meeting on Friday last week, the Tokyo Games organizing committee decided to establish the panel for selecting candidates for its new president. Fujio Mitarai, honorary president of the organizing committee, became the head of the panel.

The panel comprised eight members–four men and as many women. The male members included Mitarai and Yasuhiro Yamashita, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee. Among the female members were Yuko Arakida, a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Program Committee.

At its first meeting on Tuesday, the panel drew up five criteria for Mori’s replacement, including knowledge of the Olympics and Paralympics, understanding of gender equality and diversity, and international sensibility.

Through its three meetings held behind closed doors, the panel concluded that Hashimoto is the most appropriate person to become the committee’s new chief.

Last Friday, Mori announced his decision to resign as president of the committee after he drew ire both at home and abroad for his remarks earlier this month that meetings attended by many women tend to be prolonged.

On the preceding day, Mori asked former Japan Football Association President Saburo Kawabuchi to succeed him as the head of the organizing committee.

Kawabuchi, now supreme adviser at the football association and a councillor of the Tokyo Games organizing committee, was initially positive about the request, but eventually declined the offer after the prime minister’s office showed its disapproval.

Mori was criticized for making these moves behind the scenes.

JIJI Press