Father of a child with a disability condemns sacked composer for the Tokyo 2020 Games who abused disabled children

By Barrier Free Japan with extracts from From Nikkan Gendai via Yahoo! Japan

July 23 2021

A father of a child with a disability has spoken of his outrage that Keigo Oyamada, better known as the musician ‘Cornelius’, who admitted to assaulting children with disabilities, was commissioned to compose music for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Rei Obara, an animal photographer and YouTuber, who is the father of a disabled child, is outraged. “As a parent, I have no words to describe what my child has been through at school. What kind of nerve is it to make fun of that as an adult? It’s a dark joke that a song by someone like this should be played at the Paralympics. It could be traumatic. Even if it happened 27 years ago, it’s not acceptable.”

The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games had intended to retain Keigo Oyamada after the problem was discovered, saying that they hoped he would continue to contribute to the organizing committee, but in response to the criticism, they accepted his resignation.

CEO of Tokyo 2020 of Toshiro Mutoh apologized, saying that he had not made the right decision, and announced that Oyamada’s music would not be used.