“The JOC has no comment to make.”

In a speech given on November 17th, Ishikawa Governor Hiroshi Hase proudly stated that he had produced and presented 105 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with albums worth 200,000 yen each using secret Cabinet funds in order to bid for the Tokyo Olympics. This caused a huge uproar as suspicions arose that this had violated the IOC’s ethical regulations as a form of bribery, and Governor Hase hastily tried to calm things down by commenting, “There was a misunderstanding of the facts. I completely retract this statement.”

At the time, the IOC had acknowledged the customary gifts, but doubts were raised as to where the facts were misunderstood and whether there had been other similar acts. Since then, Governor Hasi has refused to answer questions from reporters, repeating the same phrase “I have retracted it, so I will not say anything more” more than 30 times. He simply wasted time at the press conference.

Former Japan rugby team member Tsuyoshi Hirao has been problematic with Governor Hasi’s comments from the beginning. He has pointed out in X that “this is really an ‘incident’. We are being completely taken for granted,” and “The days when it was okay to just play sports are over. Athletes also need to turn their eyes to society and know what is going on now. We need to protect ourselves so that sports are not consumed.”

However, when asked by a reporter about Governor Hasi’s revelations, JOC (Japan Olympic Committee) Vice President Miya Yuko made it clear that she was essentially ignoring the situation, without any scrutiny or introspection, saying, “As the revelations have already been completely retracted, the JOC has nothing to comment on.”

Olympians, who should have learned to follow the rules and have a spirit of fair play, are not taking responsibility for their own words and actions and are burying the suspicions. Why are the words of athletes who once moved so many people so easily dominated by politics and become untrustworthy? I had many conversations with Mr. Hirao, who continues to raise these issues.