On March 18, Beijing time, according to overseas network news, according to the Philippine ABS-CBN television broadcaster, Tokyo Olympic Games opening and closing ceremony director Sasaki Hiroshi (now 66 years old) resigned because he had proposed a performance plan to the funny female artist Watanabe Naomi who planned to perform at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which insulted her appearance, causing a storm.
According to Japan's "Weekly Bunharu" report, on March 5 last year, Hiroshi Sasaki wrote in the LINE group in charge of the opening ceremony director group, "(Inoemoji) = Naomi Watanabe, how to behave cute in the transformation part?" "Olympig falling from the sky = Naomi Watanabe" and so on.
This proposal was fiercely opposed and withdrawn within the director's group at the time. Some female members responded that "it feels bad to use the example of someone else's appearance" and "it may be a woman's point of view, but it is completely incomprehensible (the content of the proposal)", and male members also said, "It's so bad that it makes you faint".
The idea came from director Sasaki's desire to play with the harmonic terrier, and the Olympic pronunciation of Japanese reminded him of "pig", so he planned to invite Naomi Watanabe, who was plump, to play. This vulgar and unsmiling cold joke is jaw-dropping. Moreover, Sasaki also equated Naomi Watanabe with "pig" in the group chat of the director group, which is disrespectful to women and also suspected of discriminating against obese people.
In this regard, Sasaki Hiroshi explained that he often inadvertently said cold jokes, and once said that if he put on a cute pink costume and stuck out his tongue to say the word "Olympig", he could show watanabe's cuteness, but he had been discouraged by the staff present, and he would also reflect on it.
Tomoki Kunieda, an associate professor at Sophia University who specializes in international communications, said that such a proposal was extremely inappropriate, "In an occasion like the Olympic Games, if a performance that compares obese women to pigs is likely to provoke the anger of countries around the world and recognize Japan as a 'country of discrimination.'"
In addition, according to Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun", the relevant person of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee said on the same day that "the organizing committee is confirming the relevant facts, if this is a fact, it is very inappropriate and regrettable."
Hiroshi Sasaki, 66, is a well-known advertising director in Japan and led the "Tokyo 8 Minutes" at the Rio Olympics in 2016. In December last year, in response to the request to simplify the opening and closing ceremonies, the Japanese Olympic Organizing Committee disbanded the director team led by Mansai Nomura, and Hiroshi Sasaki, who was already a core member, took over the position of general director.
In addition to condemning the director, netizens also felt sorry for Naomi Watanabe. Naomi is a Chinese-Japanese mixed-race child, debuted as a funny artist in 2007, and became popular the following year by imitating Beyoncé in the show, and her super popularity has continued to this day.