The Tokyo Games organizing committee approved Seiko Hashimoto, the just-resigned Olympic minister and an Olympic medalist, as its next president on Thursday in Tokyo.
The decision was made at an executive board meeting of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The committee's selection panel to choose a successor to Yoshiro Mori picked Hashimoto, 56, as its candidate for the top post a day earlier.
Last week, former Prime Minister Mori, 83, said he would step down as president after coming under fire for his remarks widely seen as discriminatory against women.
As cabinet ministers are prohibited from holding executive posts in public interest corporations, Hashimoto submitted her letter of resignation from the Cabinet to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Thursday.
Suga then picked Tamayo Marukawa to succeed Hashimoto as Olympic minister. Marukawa, a House of Councillors member of the Liberal Democratic Party, is a former Olympic minister.
Earlier Thursday, Hashimoto's intention to accept the offer was made known to the selection panel at its third meeting held in Tokyo. The eight-person panel chaired by Fujio Mitarai, honorary president of the organizing committee, recommended its pick to the committee's executive board members, which held an extraordinary meeting later the same day.
The committee's articles of incorporation stipulate that the president shall be elected from among executive board members. Hashimoto had resigned from the board when assuming the post of minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2019.
At its second meeting on Wednesday, the selection panel discussed possible candidates to replace Mori based on five criteria, such as "Understanding of the overall background of the Tokyo 2020 Games and their current state of preparation" and "Organizational management skills and ability to bring together diverse stakeholders."
Hashimoto has participated in seven Olympics as a speed skater in Winter Games and a cyclist in Summer Games and held key positions in the sports world, such as vice president of the Japanese Olympic Committee. She was the first Japanese woman to win a Winter Olympic medal by capturing bronze in speed skating at the 1992 Albertville Games. Later, she served in top posts of the Japan Skating Federation and the Japan Cycling Federation.
Besides Olympic minister, Hashimoto was also the minister in charge of women's empowerment and minister of state for gender equality.
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