Japan appoints Hashimoto as 2020 Tokyo Games chief

Japan's outgoing Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto on Thursday accepted to lead the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, according to media reports.

Kyodo news agency said Hashimoto, 56, who is a former athlete, has accepted to take the vacant position to head this year's Tokyo Games.

She met Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to step down from the Olympic Minister post.

Hashimoto succeeded Tokyo's former Olympics Chief Yoshiro Mori, who resigned last week on the grounds of gender-based comments.

Mori, who led the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee since 2014, quit after widespread criticism of remarks in which he said, "Women talk too much" during a committee meeting more than one week ago.

Hashimoto previously served as minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and was a former speed skater who appeared in seven Olympics from 1984 to1996.

She won bronze in the 1,500-meter speed skating race at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

Hashimoto was also an Olympic cyclist at the Summer Games.