TOKYO (Kyodo) – A series of European embassies in Japan have published photos of workers raising their hands under the hashtags “dontbesilent” and “genderequality” following recent sexual comments by Tokyo’s Olympic leader, Yoshiro Mori, with the reaction going viral on Japanese social media.
After the German Ambassador used the hashtags on Friday, other European diplomatic missions in Japanese capitals such as Finland, Sweden and the European Union followed suit.
Mori, the 83-year-old Japanese prime minister, said Wednesday at a meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee that women tend to talk too much in meetings because they have a “strong sense of conflict. “
The move to raise one hand is expected to show support for gender equality and urge not to remain silent against sexual comments, according to embassy officials.
“Gender equality is what we have always promoted. This is one of the core values,” said an employee at one of the embassies involved in the tweets that declined to be name the nomination or embassy.
On Saturday morning, the Irish and Portuguese embassies, as well as the Tokyo United Nations Information Center, had joined the move, with the first tweet of the German Ambassador returned more than 10,000 times.
Mori withdrew the comments and apologized on Thursday, but public anger over Mori does not appear to be easing.
In Japanese social media, a number of retweets posted about their intention to oppose gender discrimination, also using hashtags in the Japanese sense such as “Women who don’t behave themselves” and “Try to quit his post, Yoshiro Mori. “
An online petition calling on central and Tokyo metropolitan governments, as well as the JOC and Tokyo’s Olympic organizing committee, to “properly address” Mori’s behavior is also steaming up.
By Saturday morning, more than 100,000 people had signed the Change.org petition launched on Thursday afternoon.
The comments by Mori have cast another dark shadow over the Tokyo Olympics in the summer, postponed for one year due to the outbreak of the coronavirus novel and already declining support among the Japanese population.