The head creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies,
Hiroshi Sasaki [
ja], resigned in March, after making demeaning comments about a woman celebrity.
[232][233]
On 14 July 2021, the Organizing Committee announced the creative team for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics, and appointed
Keigo Oyamada of
Cornelius as a composer of the
opening ceremony.
[234][235] It caused a growing number of people on social media said that he was ineligible to be such role because he is widely known by his past bullying to people with apparent
disabilities, such as
Down syndrome.
[236][237] He has inflicted horrific abuse on his peers when at school; such as forcing them to eat their
excrement,
masturbate in front of other students, etc., and he himself often told about the
disability abuse stories as vaunt in several interviews
[238] On 16 July, a week before the opening ceremony, the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which was questioned for insight and good sense, announced to support him as a composer and not to change the decision for the ceremonies.
[239][240] Toshirō Mutō, the chief executive of the Organizing Committee, said he wanted Oyamada to remain involved.
[238] Growing criticism forced Oyamada to announce his resignation on 19 July.
[241][242]
On 21 July, Japanese media reported that
Kentarō Kobayashi, who is the director of the opening and closing ceremonies after Sasaki resigned, utilized
The Holocaust by
Nazi Germany in a script for his comedy in 1998, and he made malicious and anti-Semitic jokes including "Let's play Jews genocide game (Let's play Holocaust)."
[243][244] The
Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a Jewish, human rights organization, immediately issued a statement of condemnation to the anti-Semitic jokes.
[243][245] On 22 July, the day before the opening ceremony, the Organizing Committee announced to dismiss Kobayashi.
[246][247]