Opening ceremony director sacked over old Holocaust skit

Tokyo, July 22 (IANS): The director of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Kentaro Kobayashi has been fired after his decades-old comedy skit on Holocaust came into limelight.

Kobayashi’s axing follows the resignation of opening ceremony music composer Keigo Oyamada, who had admitted to bullying children with disabilities years ago.

“It came to light that during a past performance, [Kobayashi] used language that mocked a tragic fact of history,” Tokyo 2020 Olympic chief Seiko Hashimoto told the media.

“The organising committee has decided to relieve Kobayashi of his post,” she added.

In a statement, Kobayashi has apologised for the skit in which he and a fellow comedian pretended to be famous children’s TV entertainers.

While performing an activity, Kobayashi called some paper doll cutouts as “the ones from that time you said ‘let’s play the Holocaust’”. The audience had laughed at it.

Both Kobayashi and his colleague then joked about how a TV producer was angered by the suggestion of an activity related to the Holocaust.