TOKYO — The head of Japan’s Olympic Committee said on Tuesday that he would step down at the end of his term this summer — a decision that comes as he faces a French corruption investigation into how Tokyo was chosen to host next year’s Summer Games. The committee’s president, Tsunekazu Takeda, has said that he is innocent. Speaking at a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Takeda said he planned to resign in late June, at the end of his 10th term as president of the committee, to make room for a new generation of Olympic leadership. He will also resign his position on the International Olympic Committee. “It’s very painful for me to think that I have made such an uproar in society,” he said, but he added, “I have done nothing wrong, and moving forward, I want to make efforts to prove my innocence.”

Source: New York Times March 19, 2019 05:43 UTC