Under -fire Olympic composer steps down
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) — Keigo Oyamada, a Japanese composer working on the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, resigned on Monday after coming under fire for bullying a classmate during his childhood.
“I sincerely accept the opinions and advice I have received, express my gratitude, and will keep them in mind for my future actions and thoughts,” he said on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
“I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
Reports of his past verbal abuse of a child with disabilities surfaced online recently, sparking a backlash on social media and demands for his resignation.
The Tokyo Games organizers said on Sunday that he would stay on because he had shown remorse about his past actions.
Oyamada, also known as Cornelius, apologized online last week.
Some critics had said he should hold a news conference and apologize in person. Others also questioned why he hadn’t apologized earlier.
Oyamada, whose works have been compared to the American rock musician Beck, talked about the abuse in Japanese magazine interviews he gave in the 1990s.
