#DontBeSilent: how a Japanese student helped to bring down the Tokyo Olympics chief
- After Yoshiro Mori made sexist remarks, Momoko Nojo launched a campaign that galvanised global outrage against the president of Tokyo 2020
- He quit last week and has been replaced by Seiko Hashimoto, a former athlete who has competed in seven Olympic Games
When a 22-year-old Japanese university student launched an online campaign against the powerful Tokyo Olympics chief and the sexist remarks he made, she was not sure it would go very far.
But in less than two weeks, Momoko Nojo’s #DontBeSilent campaign organised with other activists gathered more than 150,000 signatures, galvanising global outrage against Yoshiro Mori, the president of Tokyo 2020.
He quit last week and has been replaced by Seiko Hashimoto, a former athlete who has competed in seven Olympic Games.
The hashtag was coined in response to remarks by Mori, an octogenarian former prime minister, that women talk too much. Nojo used it on Twitter and other social media platforms to gather support for a petition calling for action against him.
“Few petitions have got 150,000 signatures before. I thought it was really great. People take this personally too, not seeing this as only Mori’s problem,” said a smiling Nojo in a Zoom interview.