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12 women nominated as Tokyo Games organizing committee executives

The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee on Tuesday nominated 12 female candidates for its executive board as it seeks to improve gender equality in the wake of a sexism row sparked by former president Yoshiro Mori.Sources close to the matter said the 12 candidates include Sydney Olympic marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi and two-time Paralympic alpine skiing champion Kuniko Obinata, both 48.The new organizing committee president, Seiko Hashimoto, set the target of raising female representation on the executive board to 40 percent, up from the current 20 percent.Mori, an 83-year-old former prime minister, drew widespread criticism after he told an online session of the Japanese Olympic Committee that meetings with women tend to drag on because they often talk too much.We need to deal with the issue quickly to restore (public) confidence in the organizing committee and to produce results, said Hashimoto, who replaced Mori last month.

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