Olympics Opening Ceremony Director Fired For Holocaust “Joke”

The director of the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Summer time Olympics has been fired after footage from a 1998 comedy sketch confirmed him making an antisemitic Holocaust joke.

Kentaro Kobayashi was relieved of his duties simply sooner or later earlier than the opening ceremony for the Summer time Video games is about to happen in Japan.

The organizing committee confirmed Kobayashi’s departure in a statement. It defined the artistic director had been faraway from his place “after a joke he had made up to now a couple of painful historic occasion was dropped at gentle.”

“Within the brief time remaining earlier than the Opening Ceremony, we provide our deepest apologies for any offense and anguish this matter might have triggered to the many individuals concerned within the Olympic Video games, in addition to to the residents of Japan and the world,” stated the committee.

Kobayashi, who is understood for his work as a comic, actor, and theater director, appeared in 1998 as a part of the comedy duo, Rahmens. Throughout a sketch, Kobayashi and Jin Katagiri parodied hosts for a kids’s academic program. Kobayashi referred to some paper doll cutouts, describing them as “those from that point you stated ‘let’s play the Holocaust,'” in line with AFP news agency.

His remarks have been met with laughter from the viewers.