An outspoken economic adviser to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stepped down on Monday after his recent online posts drew fire for downplaying the COVID-19 situation in Japan and ridiculing growing calls for the cancellation of this summer's Tokyo Olympics.

Yoichi Takahashi. (Kyodo)

 

Suga told reporters Yoichi Takahashi, a former Finance Ministry official who is now a professor, has apologized for his remarks and offered his resignation.

On May 9, Takahashi tweeted, "Japan is a mere ripple" in the ocean, along with a graph showing the number of infections in Japan as much lower than other countries, including India and the United States. "So the Olympics should be canceled for this? lol lol."

Days later, Suga described his tweet as "extremely regrettable."

Takahashi drew further criticism for his tweet on Friday, saying that Japan's state of emergency, seen from Europe and the United States, is "something like a fart (in the wind)" given that it is not martial law.

But Takahashi deleted the tweet on Monday apologizing in a new post that using the expression was "improper," but maintained his stance that the country's state of emergency is not tough enough to restrict people's behavior.

In an effort to curb the number of coronavirus infections, Suga declared another state of emergency in Tokyo and several other prefectures in April.

Opposition parties are now looking to grill Suga over his responsibility for appointing the economic adviser to the Cabinet.

"It's not just over with (Takahashi's) resignation. The prime minister's judgement should be questioned for asking such a ridiculous person to be his adviser," Yukio Edano, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said in a party meeting.

Akira Koike, second-in-command of the Japanese Communist Party, told a press conference that "Takahashi did something inexcusable," adding that the prime minister should explain to the public why he was picked.

Media polls have shown that the large majority of people in Japan, who are not yet vaccinated, are against hosting the Tokyo Olympics, due to begin July 23.

The public remains skeptical about the ability of the games' organizers to go ahead with the major sporting event, while Japan has been struggling to deal with its fourth wave of infections, propelled by the spread of mutant variants.

A professor at Kaetsu University, Takahashi became one of the special advisers to the Cabinet in October last year, about one month after Suga took office.

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