The director of show for the Tokyo Olympics has been sacked.
Footage of Kentaro Kobayashi was dismissed a day before the start of the 2020 Games in Japan.
His dismissal came after a video footage of him making jokes of the Holocaust in the 1990s emerged.
Kentaro Kobayashi used to be a comedian. He has been condemned for the comments, including from global rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC).
The Olympic boss of Japan, Seiko Hashimoto, according to local media reports, condemned the video, stating that it ridiculed “painful facts of history”.
“With the opening ceremony being so imminent, we apologise for causing concern to those involved in the Olympics, to the citizens of Tokyo and the Japanese public,” according to Ms Hashimoto in a statement.
“Any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims of the Nazi genocide,” says Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Global Social Action Director.
