The head of Tokyo’s Olympic organizing committee Yoshiro Mori gave as his reason for opposing naming more women directors that “women talk too much”.

The remarks set off a firestorm of protest and Mr Mori apologised at the time but said he would not resign.

But on Friday he apologised for his “inappropriate statement”.

“What is important is to hold the Olympics from July. It must not be the case that my presence becomes an obstacle to that,” he said at a special committee meeting on Friday, where he also announced his resignation.

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The committee board currently has 24 members, five of whom are women. In 2019, the committee – which is responsible for selecting Japanese Olympians – set itself a goal of increasing the number of female board directors to 40%.

“If we increase the number of female board members, we have to make sure their speaking time is restricted somewhat, they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying,” Mr Mori was quoted as saying.

“We have about seven women at the organising committee, but everyone understands their place.”

Even his family seems to think that he is an idiot.

He told Japan’s Mainichi newspaper that female family members had also lambasted him after his comments.

“Last night, my wife gave me a thorough scolding. She said: ‘You’ve said something bad again, haven’t you? I’m going to have to suffer again because you’ve antagonised women’,” he said.

“This morning, my daughter and granddaughter scolded me as well,” the paper quoted him as saying.

There was a time when older people who made idiotic statements like this were given some slack, that they were stuck in the past and did not realize that times have changed. That excuse is no longer put forward.