Japan Press Weekly

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2017 February 1 - 7 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Tokyo 2020 organizing committee urges planned golf tournament venue to terminate female membership ban

The Tokyo Organizing Committee for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games on February 2 urged a famous private golf course, Kasumigaseki Country Club, which is selected as a host venue for the 2020 Summer Olympics, to revise its discriminatory rules against women.

Since its selection as the Olympic golf venue, the club’s men-only membership policy has been criticized for its discrimination against women and for violating the spirit of the Olympic Charter.

The Tokyo organizing committee failed to deal with this issue properly. However, pressed by the International Olympic Committee in late January to take measures to improve the situation, the organizing committee together with relevant organizations, including the Japan Olympic Committee and the International Golf Federation, sent the golf course a written request to change its rules to accept women as full members.

The Olympic Charter states, “Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, […].”

The IOC has been working for years to achieve women’s equality with men in the Olympic Games and in the dispatch of athletes to Summer and Winter Games. In 2014, it adopted the Olympic Agenda 2020 which calls for the promotion of gender equality. Discrimination against women conflicts directly with the fundamental principles stated in the Olympic Charter.

The Tokyo 2020 organizers need to recognize the importance of its responsibility to stage the Games in line with the Olympic movement’s basic policies, such as the Olympic Charter and the Olympic Agenda.