In an interview in New York, he blamed Istanbul,
one of competitors against Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics, appealing Tokyo's
advantages, according to The New York Times (NYT).
His comment, “Islamic countries, the only
thing they share in common is Allah and they are fighting with each other, and
they have classes” was deemed to be problematic. International Olympic Committee
Code of Ethics prohibits bidders from criticizing on rival cities.
Mr. Inose claimed that this article of NYT did not report his own opinion precisely on his Facebook Page. He said
he liked Istanbul privately and he had no intention to criticize other
competitors.
Over 200 comments are posted to this entry.
As far as I understand, opinions of the replies are various. Some blame NYT. Others criticize the carelessness of Mr. Inose. There are also comments
emphasizing international friendship more than hosting Olympic.
Tokyo 2020 bid claimed that it was doubtful
whether Mr. Inose's speech had been translated exactly.
Then, NYT stood by the article
soon after the announcement of the comment of Mr. Inose. According to NYT,
reporters were familiar with Japanese language, and Mr. Inose was also accompanied
with a translator.
Tokyo side might feel disadvantageous. Mr.
Inose publicly apologized about his comment at Apr. 30, 2013. His whole comment
was published at his official website both in Japanese and English.
According to Sankei News, He told that he
could not avoid making comment including a comparison against other cities to
emphasize the advantages of Tokyo.
Actually, I hardly know about the character
of Mr. Inose. He was working as a deputy governor of Tokyo under the control of
Mr. Shintaro Ishihara. Mr. Ishihara, past governor and now the president of Japan
Restoration Party, is a very aggressive person.
I think what Mr. Inose said exactly is not
so important. As he said, negative campaigns are more or less inevitable in any
voting. How to deflect emotion of voters is always decisive for the victory. I think that Mr. Inose's decision of early apologizing will be successful.
Ummmm... however, Mr Inose said "It is good to know who is my side and who is not" in twitter after this, right? That is not a good comment...
ReplyDeleteI think if he decide to apologize, he should not put an unnecessary comment.
Peet