TOKYO (JAPAN) – Japan’s Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto has emerged as the preferred candidate as successor for Yoshiro Mori as president of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee after he has resigned last week, public broadcaster NHK said.
Hashimoto will be asked by the panel if she agrees to take the position, NHK added.
The government’s spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, told a regular news conference, “I am aware of the report, but the committee is an independent body that makes its own decision.”
Hashimoto herself has a personal connection with Olympics. She was born a few days before Japan hosted the 1964 summer games, and she is named after the Olympic flame. She has stood true to her name by being part in seven of the Games, both winter and summer, and in two sports.
A 56-year-old lawmaker of Japan’s ruling party, Hashimoto has served as the Olympics minister, in addition to being a minister for women’s empowerment since 2019.
At the committee’s first meeting on Tuesday, it came to an agreement on five criteria for a new leader, which is a deep understanding of gender equality and diversity and the capacity to uphold those values during the Games, organisers said in a statement.
The Games themselves are set to begin on July 23.