欧美文化:Tokyo 2020 chief Hashimoto and JOC head Yamashita to attend Beijing 2022

TOKYO, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo 2020 organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto and Japanese Olympic Committee president Yasuhiro Yamashita will attend the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the Japanese government announced here on Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that Kazuyuki Mori, president of the Japan Paralympic Committee, will also appear at the Beijing Winter Paralympics.

Hashimoto had been the Olympic Minister since 2019 before replacing former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori as Tokyo 2020 president last February. Mori was forced to resign over alleged sexist comments.

57-year-old Hashimoto has competed in seven Olympics - as a speed skater at four Winter Games, and a track cyclist at three Summer Games. In 1992, she took bronze in the women's 1,500m speed skating event in Albertville, France.

Yamashita had already announced his travel to China when he attended a Beijing 2022-themed exhibition in Tokyo last month.

The judo legend confirmed he would travel to China on January 30 with the Japanese delegation, which will have over 200 members.

"The Japanese delegation will be officially unveiled on January 29 and depart for Beijing on January 30. I will join them too. Although we have not decided how many athletes will be competing, there will be more than 200 members," he noted.

Yamashita, who won a gold medal in judo at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, was forced to miss the 1980 Moscow Olympics because Japan boycotted the Games following the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

Like Kano Jigoro, the founder of judo, Yamashita has done much to promote cultural and sporting exchanges between Japan and China. He helped to establish two judo schools in the Chinese cities of Qingdao and Nanjing.

Yamashita, who was a hot favorite to win the heavyweight gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Games, instead had to watch from the stands as a spectator, and the Japanese opposes any attempt to boycott the Beijing Olympics.

"We cannot deprive athletes of the chance to compete at the Olympics," he said in an interview with Xinhua before the Tokyo Olympics. "I think Japan will not boycott. As far as I know, although there are government officials in some countries making some comments [about a boycott], there has not been a single local Olympic Committee that has agreed with such remarks."