A day before the much-beleaguered Tokyo 2020/2021 Olympics are to begin, the Opening Ceremony has been rocked by scandal. The director for the opening ceremonies, Kentaro Kobayashi, has been dismissed from his position for a joke he made in the past about the Holocaust. According to the Daily Beast, Kobayashi called the Holocaust the “let’s massacre Jewish people game” in a 1998 stand-up routine. Kobayashi was one part of comedy duo Rahmens; the pair were the Japanese face of Apple’s Mac vs. PC campaign.
This isn’t the only scandal befalling the Opening Ceremony this week. Shibuya-kei musician Cornelius dropped out of the Olympics on July 19, after stories of his bullying resurfaced. Keigo Oyamada, also known as Cornelius, discussed in a magazine interview how he would “force a mentally disabled boy to eat his own feces and masturbate in front of other students,” per NBC News. Cornelius resigned and apologized for his past actions, writing, “I sincerely apologize to my classmates and their parents who have been hurt by my words and actions, and I feel deep regret and responsibility for not being a good friend in school life, which is supposed to make good memories, but being in a position to hurt them.”
