TOKYO: Twelve women were newly appointed to the Executive Board of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee on Wednesday.

The move raised the number of women on the 45-member board to 19, or about 42 pct of the total, achieving the 40 pct target set by committee chief Seiko Hashimoto.

The new members include Olympic marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi and Kuniko Obinata, a winter Paralympic alpine skiing gold medalist.

The members were selected from academics, lawyers, members of private-sector companies and infectious disease experts, as well as athletes.

Mitsue Haga, head of a civic group comprising people of Ainu indigenous descent, was also selected, as part of efforts to diversify the board.

“We selected people from a variety of fields,” said Hashimoto, president of the organizing committee. “What’s important is to hear opinions and proposals from them about what we should do, and to sum them up.”

JIJI Press