Photo/Illutration Naoto Takenaka (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A popular actor cast for a main role in the July 23 Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics resigned just a day before the show to avoid creating yet another scandal that would haunt the Games.

Actor and director Naoto Takenaka, 65, who has starred in many films, including “Muno No Hito” (Nowhere Man), informed the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games on July 22 that he could no longer be part of the ceremony.

According to Takenaka’s talent agency, the actor told the committee that he starred in a 1985 video titled “Takenaka Naoto no hosokinshi terebi” (Banned from being broadcasted), in which he mocked a visually impaired person in his performance.

An organizing committee representative admitted to the portrayal.

“It became known the day before (the Opening Ceremony), and we had to replace him,” the official said.

In the skit, Takenaka, along with other performers, swung around a white cane while walking on a pedestrian crossing for the sake of a laugh, according to his talent agency.

The video was criticized at the time by organizations representing people with disabilities, prompting Takenaka to issue an apology.

The video is no longer for sale, according to the agency.

But the incident from 36 years ago apparently did not stop Takanaka from accepting an offer to perform in the Opening Ceremony--until the 11th hour, after Keigo Oyamada, a composer for the Opening Ceremony, attracted renewed attention on social media over his past.

In magazine interviews in the 1990s, Oyamada boasted about bullying and abusing his classmates, including some with disabilities.

Takenaka learned of the scandal. He immediately wanted to bow out of the Opening Ceremony, according to the agency.

But Takenaka’s manager convinced him to stay because he “was not the one who produced the problematic content or the project.”

“It was a role he just played, and it is not on the same level as (Oyamada),” the manager told Takenaka, according to the agency.

But Oyamada, who initially insisted he would not quit and was defended by the organizing committee, resigned suddenly on July 19.

Then on July 22, news of another scandal broke.

Kentaro Kobayashi, director of the Opening and Closing ceremonies, was fired over a past performance where he joked about the Holocaust.

After seeing how a disgraced comedy skit from the past became subject to renewed public criticism that led to the performer being punished for it, Takenaka insisted that he wanted to resign.

“My involvement will cause trouble to everyone including related officials and athletes,” he told the committee, and his resignation was accepted, according to the agency.

Takenaka was cast to play a construction foreman in a “kiyari uta” segment, which featured a traditional work song dating to the Edo Period (1603-1867), paying homage to carpenters and firefighters.

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