Kobayashi Kentaro, Director of the Olympics Opening Ceremony was removed from his post

Former Rahmens comedian Kobayashi Kentaro (48) was selected as the Director of the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

But when a past comedy sketch of the comedian making light of the holocaust was shared, the Tokyo Organising Committee announced that Kobayashi has been removed from his post.

The latest black eye to the Tokyo Olympics after Oyamada Keigo’s (aka music artist, Cornelius) resigned from the opening ceremonies creative team for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics after a 1994 interview article of him proudly boasting of bullying a classmate who had disabilities was shared and gain attention.

Tokyo Organising Committee President Hashimoto Seiko offered an apology over the incident.

Kobayashi released the following statement, “I think it was a time when I couldn’t make people laugh as much as I wanted, and I was trying to attract people’s attention in a shallow way. As a person whose job is to entertain people, I should never make people feel uncomfortable. After that, I realized that it was not good for me and I had a change of heart. (I) started to aim for laughter that does not hurt people.”

Kobayashi’s former comedy partner also released a statement, Katagiri Jin also released an apology, “This time, I deeply apologize for making many people feel uncomfortable due to the extremely inappropriate lines in the Rahmens sketch 23 years ago.  At that time, I couldn’t imagine that there were people who were uncomfortable with discriminatory expressions and unscrupulous phrases.  I regret that I acted in that sketch without realizing the seriousness of the matter”.

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