[서울신문] A Japanese celebrity who is almost like a’pig makeup’, “How’s it fat… I’m happy”

A Japanese celebrity, who almost appeared as a “pig makeup” at the opening event of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games, is receiving applause for his position that he is satisfied with his body.

Japanese popular celebrity Naomi Watanabe (31, female) resigned because it was known that Hiroshi Sasaki (66), creative director in charge of opening and closing ceremonies at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games on the 18th, proposed a plan for the opening ceremony using her fat body in insult. Regarding, the company announced its position through Yoshimoto Corporation.

Watanabe said that he received an offer to appear in the opening ceremony of the Olympics through his agency last year, but he knew that the Olympics were postponed for one year in March last year due to the influence of Corona 19.

After that, in a situation where he couldn’t hear anything, he said, “I’m also honestly surprised,” when he saw the fact that the discussion of the content different from the direction that was initially proposed was exchanged through the report.

Director Sasaki emphasized the similarity of the Olympic’Pick’ in Japanese pronunciation of’Pig’, which means pig in English, and appeared at the opening ceremony with Watanabe’s fat figure dressed as a pig. It turned out that the idea was suggested to the team members in charge in March last year.

Director Sasaki, who was in charge of the Paralympic Games at the beginning, took over as the director of the Olympics and Paralympic Games when the existing production team disbanded in December of last year as the opening and closing ceremony of the Olympics was greatly reduced due to the influence of Corona 19.

Director Sasaki, who will lead the four events of the opening and closing ceremony of the Tokyo Games, expressed his gratitude as soon as the controversy grew after the weekly magazine’Weekly Moonchun’ reported on the discussion of the idea in question.

Watanabe, who almost dressed up as a pig, made fun of him or booed him for being fat, but he said he was working with understanding.

He added, “In reality, I am happy with this type of body,” he added, “I want to express it with Naomi Watanabe,” without paying attention to the weight as before.

However, he criticized Director Sasaki’s direction for trying to dress himself up as a pig with the expression, “I sincerely hope that each person respects each other’s individuality and thoughts, and recognizes each other to make a pleasant and prosperous world.”

Watanabe has a Japanese father and a Taiwanese mother, and he is an all-around entertainer who plays an active part as a host, actor, singer, and comedian.

If you look at the new image of Watanabe, whose hobby is’eating’ through the agency’s website, he is 158cm tall and weighs 107kg.

It is popular with performances that make use of the fat body, and Instagram followers exceed 9.3 million, the highest among Japanese.

Seiko Hashimoto, chairman of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee, announced at a press conference the day before that Director Sasaki resigned, saying “it shouldn’t have happened,” and said that he would appoint a successor as soon as possible so that there would be no setbacks in preparing for the opening and closing ceremony.

Reporter Shin Jin-ho [email protected]