The head of the Tokyo Olympics is apologizing for sexist statements that women talk too much at meetings.

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Mori, a former prime minister, made the remarks at an Olympics board event on Wednesday. When asked about Japan’s Olympic Committee’s goal of increasing the number of women on the board from 20% to 40%, Mori said he was concerned about how this would affect the length of meetings.

She reportedly said “board meetings with many women take longer” because “women are competitive: if one member raises his hand to speak, others might think they need to speak as well,” according to Japanese press reports. “If you want to increase the number of female members, you will have problems if you don’t set time limits,” he reported.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday, Mori, 83, confirmed he made the statements behind closed doors and said he regretted doing so.

“I recognize that my comment yesterday was an inappropriate expression and went against the spirit of the Olympics and Paralympics. I’m deeply sorry,” he said. “I would like to withdraw my comment and apologize to the people I made unpleasant.”

The comments sparked an immediate firestorm in Japan, where women regularly face gender discrimination in the workplace and when looking for positions of power.

Japan’s gender gap is “by far the largest of all advanced economies,” according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gap Gender Gap 2020 report. The report ranked Japan 121 out of 153 countries, in part because of the findings that women represent only 5.3% of listed business council members and only 10% of parliamentarians, one of the levels of representation lowest female politics in the world.
Mori said he did not plan to leave office, but the debacle will likely be a major distraction for the organizing committee, which faces the daunting task of playing the Games in less than six months as Japan struggles to curb the growing number. of coronavirus cases. The Summer Olympics were delayed last year due to the Covid-19, and experts have said it may not be possible to postpone the event again.
A survey conducted last month by national broadcaster NHK found that 77% of people in Japan think games should be canceled or postponed. However, Japanese leaders have promised that the Games will be held. The upward attitude comes despite rumors of its cancellation and logistical hurdles preventing it from hosting such a massive event amid a public health crisis.

The country’s medical system has been overwhelmed in recent days due to a rise in Covid-19 cases, with 10 prefectures affected in a state of emergency. As of Wednesday, more than 8,700 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in these areas were waiting to be taken to a hospital or isolation center because authorities have run out of space. Some of those waiting to be transferred have mild symptoms, or none.

CNN’s Selina Wang and journalist Chie Kobayashi contributed to the report

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