On March 17, 2021, a report from the Weekly Shukan Bunshun revealed that Sasaki Hiroshi, creative director for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, had proposed plans to dress celebrity Watanabe Naomi as a pig, dubbed “Olympig” for the opening ceremony.
Sasaki stepped down from the position of creative director a day later, as critics pushed for something to be done. It seemed that, yet again, the Tokyo Olympics would have to find a replacement for one of their senior staff; just a month prior, Mori Yoshiro had resigned after making a sexist remark, saying women “made meetings run too long.”
The “Olympig” Proposal
Before the delay of the Tokyo Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening and closing ceremonies were initially going to feature a wide variety of people, such as Nogaku artist Nomura Mansai and dancer MIKIKO.
Unfortunately, those plans were cancelled and the team disbanded after the delay back in March 2020, which left Sasaki to figure out a new plan. To this, a line group was formed with members of the creative committee to plan a new opening ceremony.
And that’s where Sasaki pitched his idea.
(Pig Emoji) = Watanabe Naomi, how do we make her transformation look cute.
Olympig (Pig Snout Emoji)
Rather than looking back on history, we should use highlights of past [Olympic] events to make things look exciting. For example:
– Rare or interesting plays via archives
– Incredible feats, special features
– Tears of joy
– Unforgettable ceremonies and heartfelt scenes, etc.
Sasaki also made other comments not shown in the screenshot above, further detailing the scenario ideas in question.
“Oink oink” / (As the alien family looks back, they can see the pig that they are raising = Olympig is becoming excited in the pig pen.)
The Olympig that is flying down from the sky = Watanabe Naomi
Who is Sasaki Hiroshi?
Originally a copywriter for marketing agency Dentsu, Sasaki eventually worked his way up to director of the firm’s creative division. He’s most known for commercials, and was the mind behind the Boss coffee’s “Alien Jones” commercials featuring actor Tommy Lee Jones, and the “White Family” Softbank commercials that had a white dog act as a father of a surrealist family.
At age 66, Sasaki is a veteran of the Japanese creative industry. He has been an incredibly influential figure in Japanese marketing for the past two decades. This makes his comments, much like the ones made by Mori, very concerning. And while the propositions were shot down, its not hard to imagine a scenario where other members of the group didn’t call out Sasaki’s body shaming comments due to fear of repercussions.
Watanabe’s Response
Naomi Watanabe was quick to respond. On the 19th, she held a livestream on her YouTube channel “NAOMI CLUB”, where she spoke about the issue over the course of 3 hours.
In it, she stated that if the proposal had gone through she would have “definitely refused to participate, and would have criticized the idea.” Watanabe went on to say that “we’re in the 2020s. We shouldn’t even be making comments about other people’s bodies,” further cementing her stance on body shaming.
Additionally, she said that she felt worried people who had complexes about their body would be hurt by the news, and reiterated that she was “happy with herself and her body.”
Some comments on Japanese Twitter assumed that Watanabe, being a comedian, would have agreed with the idea. To this, Watanabe stated clearly that she denies this rhetoric:
I want people to understand this: Just because I’m a comedian, doesn’t mean I’m going to do it … When it comes to personal matters, I want to be the one to decide. I want people to know that I am my own person.
Japanese Twitter Praises Watanabe
Japanese Twitter was also quick to condemn the comments, with many expressing disappointment towards the entertainment and creative industries.
The only reason why this ended up as simple gossip is because it was shot down in the planning stage, but its insane that one of Japan’s top creatives has shown how out of touch he is. Maybe the country really is 10 or 20 years behind the world after all.
Many also praised Watanabe’s handling of the situation, and noted how calm and collected she was in her response.
Watanabe commented on the Olympics issue in her livestream. I think we should really just stop using other peoples’ appearances as the butt of jokes outright. She said that she wants to see herself in a positive light, and I really empathize with that. It makes me want to press the like button 10,000 times.
Others pointed out that Watanabe’s handling of the situation shouldn’t be taken as “the correct one”, and that we should be careful in assuming how she truly feels.
Watanabe Naomi’s comment was amazing, but I think we should really stop seeing her not getting angry — or rather, not showing that she’s angry — as the correct response, or that she’s being tolerant.
The core issue of the controversy is clear: past comedic history aside, there is a stark difference between a person making jokes about their own appearance, and a person making jokes about someone else’s appearance.
"I want people to understand this: Just because I'm a comedian, doesn't mean I'm going to do it … When it comes to personal matters, I want to be the one to decide. I want people to know that I am my own person." Click To TweetWatanabe’s statement about “wanting to be her own person” explains exactly this. Sasaki’s first mistake was in trying to establish overweight people as something to be ridiculed; a relic of the older generation’s sense of humor. His second mistake — one that is just as important as the first — was ignoring Watanabe’s own agency in the matter.
