Keijo Aoyamada quits his role at the Olympic Opening Ceremony due to past bullying

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Japanese musician Keigo Aoyamada resigned on Monday from the creative team to attend the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics after admitting he bullied children with disabilities many years ago, in the latest scandal to rock the already unpopular Games.

The resignation of Aoyamada, who was in charge of composing the music, comes just before Friday’s opening ceremony after he sparked outrage on social media for his past actions, as his latest apology failed to ease the online furore questioning the suitability of his role in Tokyo. Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Aoyamada, 52, said on Twitter on Monday that his acceptance of the request to join the team was something “lack of consideration for various people”, and that he had “submitted his resignation to the organizing committee”.

Games organizers said Aoyamada’s role in the ceremony, a roughly four-minute formation that will initially be played, will not be used, with an alternative plan now being considered.

The organizing committee said in a statement that while it recognized Oyamada’s actions as “completely unacceptable,” it has decided to keep him in office, taking into account his apology and upcoming games. But they said that “this decision was a mistake” and decided to accept his resignation.

Toshiro Muto, CEO of Tokyo 2020, said he will also not participate in the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, which is set to begin on August 24.

The famous musician’s exit from the games came after days of controversy over his confessions in magazines published in the 1990s in which he bragged about bullying people, including his childhood classmates. And after his appointment was announced last Wednesday, his confessions appeared decades ago, and his calls to step down intensified.

Aoyamada admitted Friday that interviews published in the January 1994 issue of Rockin’On Japan and in the August 1995 issue of Quick Japan correctly quoted him when he spoke of bullying his childhood peers with disabilities “without any remorse.”

Just days before the start of the Olympics, which will mostly be held without spectators amid the coronavirus pandemic, users immediately took to Twitter to express their anger and frustration at the turn of events.

“There is no way anyone who is bragging about bullying fellow disabled people after becoming an adult” will be allowed to play an active role in the Paralympics,” one blog post on Twitter said.

Another Twitter user wrote, “The Tokyo Olympics are filled with so many problems that I can’t write them all down. They are, in a sense, a legendary Olympics.” Others criticized the game’s organizers for not learning at all from past scandals.

“I sincerely feel that such actions and language should be criticized” and that he feels “deeply sorry and responsible” for what he called his “very immature” actions, Aoyamada said in a tweet last week.

He added that he felt guilty about it for a long time and that he hoped to contact the people he bullied to issue a personal apology.

Oy Matamura, general secretary of the support group made up of people with mental disabilities and their parents, said the latest scandal should not only end with his resignation, urging Aoyamada to “explain what he says himself” and urged the organizing committee to make it clear. selection process.

Government spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, said that “bullying and abuse are actions that should never happen and should never be tolerated, regardless of whether a person has a disability or not.”

Ahead of the Tokyo Paralympics scheduled to begin on August 24, Kato, the Cabinet Secretary, said, “We would like to steadfastly advance a ‘barrier-free’ spirit towards achieving an inclusive society.”

Rockin’On Japan editor-in-chief Yoichiro Yamazaki also apologized for doing the interview with Oyamada, saying, “It was a mistake to do it from the point of view of morality and honesty.”

“I offer a deep apology to all the victims and their families as well as to those who were upset by reading the story,” said Yamazaki, who interviewed Oyamada about the story in question.

Oyamada, a former member of Flipper Guitar along with Kenji Ozawa, went solo under the stage name Cornelius in 1993. He gained popularity among youngsters due to the sound of “Shibuya-kei” pop music in the 1990s.

The scandal is not the first to rock the Tokyo Games, which will finally begin after a year-long delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori resigned in February as chair of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee after being criticized at home and abroad for saying that meetings with women tend to “slow down” because they talk too much.

Summer Games’ creative director, Hiroshi Sasaki, also resigned in March after it was revealed that he had privately suggested wearing celebrity Naomi Watanabe’s plus-size dress as a pig at the opening ceremony to play the role of “Olympic.”

US media also reported on the recent scandal, with NBC, which owns NBCUniversal Media LLC, which owns NBCUniversal Media LLC, the rights to broadcast the Tokyo Games, saying in its Sunday story that “critics were far from forgiving” on Social media though, Aoyamada’s apology.

The story included a tweet that read: “How can a person who has committed such discriminatory and violent acts qualify for the Olympic and Paralympic Games?”

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Keijo Aoyamada, Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

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