Please do not tolerate Yoshiro Mori’s discriminatory remarks against women and support our call for the cancellation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Please write the name of the organization or individual and the location (country/region).　

Please send your support to: no-olympics-shomei@protonmail.com

Contact: +81-080-5052-0270 (Miyazaki, Olympics Disaster Okotowalink)

The signatures received will not be used for any purpose other than submitting them to the Organizing Committee, the JOC and announcing the number of signatures.

Endorsements can be made in any of the following ways

(1) Use the signature site (This is the site. The online signature box is at the end of this page)

(2) Send by email
　　no-olympics-shomei@protonmail.com

Please help us spread send our appeal.
　http://www.2020okotowa.link/
　https://twitter.com/Link_NoTokyo5O
　https://www.facebook.com/okotowalink
Street Action
　February 20(Sat), 2pm – Action in front of JOC
　March 6 (Sat) afternoon, demonstration (details to follow)
Art Exhibition Declaring the End of the Olympics
　At Kagurazaka Session House from Feb. 6
　https://twitter.com/end_of_olympics

Two declarations on the state of emergency – Fukushima and Tokyo: # Don’t allow Yoshiro Mori’s discrimination against women # We call for the cancellation of Tokyo 2020 Olympics[Worldwide Collection of Signatures]

Proposers:
2020 Olympics Disaster Okotowalink
　　http://www.2020okotowa.link/
Art Exhibition Executive Committee Declaring the End of the Olympics
　　https://end-of-olympics.tumblr.com/

Submit to:
Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee
Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC)

Japan is currently under the declaration of two states of emergency. One is the declaration of a state of emergency for COVID-19 infection issued to 11 prefectures including Tokyo in January this year, and the other one is the declaration of a nuclear emergency issued due to the disastrous accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company on March 11, 2011.Then there are on going protests all over the world against sexist remarks by Yoshiro Mori, the President of the Organizing Committee.

Ten years have passed since the nuclear accident in Fukushima, which was caused by a Tokyo-based company in order to produce electricity for consumption in Tokyo, but as of the end of December 2008, 67,000 residents were still evacuated to various parts of Japan.

At the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where the accident occurred, radioactive contamination of 20 to 40 quadrillion becquerels was found just the other day. As we are forced to rethink the whole process of containment, which is said to last for decades, including the removal of debris, 4,000 workers are still engaged in high-dose radiation work every day.

A series of moves that seem all too hasty, such as the release of increasingly contaminated water into the ocean and calls for a reduction in the number of thyroid tests, are continuing.

During the period of the declaration of the COVID-19 emergency, more than 1,000 new positive cases are confirmed every day, but since January 22, after the scale of the “active epidemiological survey” which examines people who have had close contact with the disease, has been reduced, the number of people who have been found to be infected has been decreasing. On the other hand, of the 4,700 secured hospital beds in metropolitan and public hospitals, 2,888 people are hospitalized (out of the 265 beds for the seriously-injured, 150 people have already been allocated), 4,800 infected people are waiting to be hospitalized, and 6,600 people are receiving treatment at home.

All infected people and health care workers, both public and private, are confronting this challenge, but even if the number of infected people announced in the survey decreases, the number of victims will not decrease, and it will only spread the breeding ground for the fourth wave.

It was reported that as many as 80% of the respondents to a public opinion poll made the very honest judgment that it would be impossible to hold the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer under such circumstances. Even with less than six months to go, 40% of the sports are still undecided about who will represent them. In light of the President Yoshiro Mori’s astonishing statement, “If you ask me if there are criteria for judging (safety and security), there aren’t any,” it is no wonder that the “the three C’s[closed spaces, crowded places, close-contact settings] investigation” during the J-League Cup final held at the National Stadium on January 4 and the test events that will resume in March are being criticized as human experimentation for the Olympics.

Nevertheless, the Tokyo metropolitan government is said to be responsible for at least ¥717 billion for the Tokyo Olympics, including the additional cost of postponement. Furthermore, the Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto announced at the end of January that she plans to recruit 10,000 medical personnel to help fight infection during the Olympics. Under the current emergency situation, how can we pull out valuable medical staff presently supporting the critically strained medical system for the Olympics? Do you really think such a thing is acceptable?

The vaccine, which does not take into account the risk of speed-before-quality will not be administered for the sake of the Olympics. And there is absolutely no way that herd immunity will be achieved in time for this summer. Rather, you should deeply regret that your obsession with hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games is depriving us of resources for COVID-19 control.

For example, the purpose of Tokyo 2020 has been changed from “Fukushima reconstruction Olympics” to “proof that humanity has defeated corona[COVID-19],” just like the shock doctrine of “good fishing in troubled waters”. The controversial message from President Bach, “Please be patient, people of Japan,” sounds like he is asking for patience until he is elected president at the IOC General Assembly on March 11, the 10th remembrance of the nuclear accident. It is not us who have to be patient, but the organizing committee, the IOC and other people involved in the Games, and the athletes, including Olympians and Paralympians.

Under these circumstances, on February 3, Yoshiro Mori, President of the Organizing Committee, made an outrageous misogynistic remark during an special meeting of the JOC Council: “Meetings with a lot of women attendees take time. It was reported that none of the participating council members saw the comment as a problem, and that “there was even laughter” (Asahi, Feb. 4, 2021). Foreign media reacted sensitively, that the New York Times reported with the headline “Yoshiro Mori suggested women’s speaking time in meetings should be limited,” and the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee, which is already struggling with the increased cost of the Games and public opposition, was to face “new furor”.

President Mori has repeatedly made problematic statements when he was Prime Minister. We should not see his this time remark as something personal. We have long pointed out that the founder of the Olympic Games, Coubertin himself, was a strong sexist, and that the Olympics have always been accompanied by sexism, including sexual harassment, violence, and gender dualism within the Games, and that it is the Olympics itself that contains such discrimination. In this sense, the Organizing Committee, with President Mori at the top, is in a sense embodying the spirit of the Olympics. We don’t want to see another travesty like this.

The Olympics, no matter when or where they are held, are a “disaster” that cannot be held without sexism, promiscuous use of national prestige, rampant use of bribes and concessions, destruction of the natural environment, and destruction of the lives of residents by venue construction and urban development.

It is outrageous that the government is trying to force through the Olympic and Paralympic Games while two states of emergency are declared and sexual discrimination is left unresolved.

Efforts to prevent COVID-19 infection will still continue. Many resources will be needed for policies to protect employment and livelihoods. And above all, we need to invest a lot of workforce and money in the work to control the TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiich nuclear power plant accident, which will continue for decades, and in the reconstruction of the hometown in Fukushima. Tokyo,Japan and perhaps the world, which is facing a debt crisis and climate crisis, cannot afford to have an athletic meet of money pit called the Olympics and Paralympics anymore.

February 2021

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