On the 18th local time, Japanese Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto officially took over as chairman of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee. Hashimoto has participated in seven Olympic Games, serving as Vice President of the Japanese Olympic Committee and President of the Japan Skating Association. Japanese media believe that her Olympic experience and political experience have made her affirmed by the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee.
△ Hashimoto Seiko
Twists and turns Why did the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee choose Hashimoto Seiko?
From Yoshiro Mori's resignation to Hashimoto's appointment as the new president, the selection of the successor chairman of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee has been a one-size-fits-all.
On the 11th, Japanese media said that Yoshiro Mori proposed that Saburo Kawabuchi, the former chairman of the Japan Football Association and the head of the Tokyo Olympic Village, take over as the chairman of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, and Kawabuchi Saburo once expressed his acceptance.
Saburo Kawabuchi participated in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics as a member of the Japanese national football team, and he has a strong Olympic feeling, and his leadership in the Japanese sports world is widely recognized. However, some commentators believe that Saburo Kawabuchi's 84-year-old age is his weakness, and there is a slight gap between the public's desire for the Tokyo 202 Organizing Committee to blow in a fresh and energetic wind.
△ Saburo Kawabuchi
As the Japanese government and others objected to Kawabuchi's succession, Saburo Kawabuchi changed his mind and expressed his reluctance to accept the appointment. According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, Kawabuchi Saburo said on the 13th that the outside world believes that he is the candidate to succeed Mori Yoshiro, and he politely declined, so he received "whirlwind attention", which made him feel "exhausted".
Fuji News Network quoted government sources as saying that many officials want a woman to replace Yoshiro Mori and Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto as a potential candidate. Kyodo News agency also believes that Hashimoto's combination of Olympic and political experience, as well as awareness of the participation of men and women and the diversity of the Olympic Games, has earned her recognition from the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee as the new president.
The name originates from the sacred fire The indissoluble relationship between The Son of Hashimoto and the Olympic Games
Hashimoto was born five days before the opening of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and her parents named her the word "holy" from the "Olympic Flame" to her. Looking at Hashimoto's resume, Reuters believes she lived up to the name.
Hashimoto is a former Japanese speed skater and cyclist who has competed in four Winter Olympics and three Summer Olympics. She is not only the Japanese female athlete who has participated in the Olympic Games the most times, but also one of the few athletes who has participated in both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympic Games. At the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, she also won a bronze medal in the 1500m speed skating, making her the first Japanese woman to win a medal in speed skating.
Hashimoto's political career is also closely related to the Olympic Games. She began her career in politics in 1995 and has served as Vice President of the Japan Olympic Committee and President of the Japan Skating Association. In 2019, she was appointed Olympic Minister and Minister of Women's Activity by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and she remained in office after Yoshihide Suga became Prime Minister of Japan in September 2020.
How to restore popular enthusiasm? Hashimoto's son was ordained
Five months before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, Hashimoto's son was appointed to take office. But public opinion, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the upcoming Olympic torch relay are all challenges ahead of her, each one less optimistic.
According to a new survey released by the Tokyo Business survey, a Japanese think tank, about 56% of the companies surveyed hope to postpone or cancel the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games again. Only 7.78 percent of companies surveyed believe they should host spectators and host the Olympic Games as originally planned, a 14.8 percentage point drop from the results published in August last year.
At present, the epidemic is still an unfavorable factor in whether the Olympic Games can be successfully hosted. The number of COVID-19 infections in Japan and some countries remains high, and the seemingly more contagious variant of the virus has also exacerbated concerns about the outbreak. If the outbreak does not improve much, no one seems to be able to guarantee that the Olympics will not become a viral super-spread event.
In addition, in response to the upcoming Olympic torch relay, different voices have also appeared in Japan. Tatsuya Maruyama, governor of Shimane Prefecture, Japan, said on the 17th that if the epidemic situation in the tokyo area does not improve, Shimane Prefecture is considering withdrawing from the Olympic flame relay activities scheduled for May in the prefecture.
Bloomberg believes that one of the tasks facing Hashimoto is to restore public enthusiasm for the already postponed Olympic Games. Today, there is widespread skepticism about the wisdom of hosting a major global sporting event like the Olympics during the pandemic.
Producer 丨 Tang Yi
Producer 丨文凡
Source: CCTV News Client