The catalogue of troubles besetting the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, already undergoing an unprecedented one-year postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic, got longer on Friday as 83-year-old organizing committee chief Yoshiro Mori resigned after his sexist remarks stirred a wave of domestic and international criticism.
The first major blemish appeared in July 2015, when a public outcry over the cost of building the new National Stadium led the government to abandon the originally approved design and begin a new bid process.
Because of that, construction began 14 months late, and the 60,000-capacity stadium was not finished in time to host matches during Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.
The stadium confusion was quickly followed in September by a fiasco over the games' logos. The winner of the original design competition, Kenjiro Sano, withdrew his submission following an accusation of plagiarism by Belgian designer Olivier Debie.
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Picked only two months prior, the logo was the result of a selection process that was ridiculed for its lack of transparency. Organizers began again from scratch with an open nationwide competition, including a more thorough vetting process, before selecting the current checked, navy-colored designs.
In the year before the coronavirus, it became clear the glowing language of Tokyo's bid, declaring the city's summer weather to be "mild and sunny," was proven false as test events were beset by high heat and humidity.
In October 2019, the International Olympic Committee took matters into its own hands and moved the marathon and race walk courses to the northern city of Sapporo.
The one-year postponement last year, however, caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, topped it all. The flame for Tokyo was lit in Greece on March 12, but the torch relay in the country was soon suspended after drawing an unexpectedly large crowd in its early stages.
A chartered flight brought the flame to Japan on March 20, four days before the postponement was announced. It was the second time a Tokyo Olympics could not take place on schedule. Japan had been picked to host the 1940 Olympics but forfeited them due to its war in China.
Mori's resignation also means another main figure from the original leadership of the team that won Tokyo the Olympics is now out of the picture.
Shinzo Abe, then the prime minister, worked in tandem with Mori and provided the final presentation at the IOC's general session in Buenos Aires in September 2013 when Japan won the bid to host.
Abe also appeared in the cartoon costume of video game character Super Mario in a surprise appearance at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Abe, however, stepped down last September citing health reasons.
Naoki Inose, Tokyo's governor at the time, was instrumental in the Japanese capital's successful bid, but resigned in December 2013 over receiving 50 million yen ($476,000) in cash from a scandal-hit hospital operator.
Former Japanese Olympic Committee chief Tsunekazu Takeda stepped down in June 2019 and resigned from the IOC after French authorities began investing him for corruption related to a $2 million payment to a Singapore-based consultant.
From 2011 to 2014, Takeda was president of the bid committee, which paid Singapore consulting firm Black Tidings the money in 2013. It is believed to have been funneled to Papa Massata Diack, the son of Lamine Diack, the powerful former IOC member and head of world athletics.
