NAGOYA--As far as political blunders go, Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura knocked this one out of the park.

His astonishing decision to pull off his mask and bite into an Olympic athlete’s gold medal ignited passionate protests online, raised the ire of Olympians and even earned him rebuke from corporate sponsors.

The incident occurred on Aug. 4, when Miu Goto, a 20-year-old member of the women's softball team that won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, visited Kawamura, 72, at city hall.

Goto showed her medal to Kawamura, who asked her to put it around his neck.

“It’s heavy,” he said. Then suddenly, and without warning, he took off his mask and bit into the medal.

Goto, wearing a mask, looked momentarily stunned but appeared to quickly respond with a smile.

As soon as news media reported the incident, it blew up on social media and city hall was swamped with phone calls from people complaining that the mayor’s behavior was outrageously disrespectful to Goto.

Even Kawamura’s aides said what he did was preposterous from the standpoint of infection controls and could be considered an act of sexual harassment.

By the end of the day, Kawamura had issued a statement, explaining the gesture was meant as “the ultimate expression of my affection.”

“I have longed to win a gold medal,” his statement said. “I apologize if it caused a problem.”

A career politician, Kawamura is known for many things, but athleticism is not one of them.

On Aug. 5, Kawamura was forced to hold a news conference to respond.

“I demonstrated a lack of respect and tarnished (Goto’s) treasure,” he said. “It was also an inappropriate action during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

But he still defended himself by saying that he played badminton in high school and has long had an “intense longing for a gold medal.”

At the meeting with Goto, he said he thought, “This is a gold medal,” and his decision to bite it was done at the “spur of the moment.”

“I did not intend to harass (her) at all,” he said, denying criticisms that what he did constituted power harassment and sexual harassment.

He said the incident occurred “in a friendly mood” and that he was only trying to please Goto.

He added that he did not bite the medal very hard.

“I don’t think it has my teeth marks on it.”

But the mayor’s excuses failed to douse the flames of controversy.

The city government was hit with over 4,000 phone calls and emails--all complaints--by the evening of Aug. 5, sources said.

Many famous athletes, as well as former and current Olympians, voiced anger on social media and expressed empathy toward Goto.

Judoka Naohisa Takato, who won a gold medal in the men’s 60-kg weight division at the Tokyo Olympics, wrote on Twitter, “I treat my own gold medal very gently so that it won’t get scratched.”

He tweeted that if he were in Goto’s position, “I would cry.”

Yuki Ota, an Olympic medalist in fencing who was elected to be a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission, swiftly riposted on Twitter as well on Aug. 4.

He pointed out that the medalists at the Tokyo Games have been asked to “put the medals on by themselves or to (put them on) each other” as a coronavirus countermeasure.

“And yet, ‘biting’?!” he wrote.

The corporate world is also up in arms over the mayor's behavior.

Goto is a member of the Red Terriers, a softball team owned by Toyota Motor Corp.

The company, headquartered in Aichi Prefecture, issued a statement on Aug. 5, which said Kawamura’s behavior was “inappropriate and monstrous” and demonstrated a “lack of respect and praise for athletes, as well as attention to infection-control measures.”

The company urged Kawamura “to act as a responsible leader.”

After receiving the written protest from Toyota, the city delivered a letter of apology signed by Kawamura addressed to the headquarters of the company, according to city officials.

The city was scheduled to sign a framework agreement with a local company, Nagoya Grampus Eight Inc., which manages a J.League soccer team by the same name and whose biggest shareholder is Toyota, on Aug. 6.

But the signing ceremony was canceled at the last minute over the scandal.

The agreement would let local children meet the soccer players and enable the team to cooperate with major city events.

Both the president of Nagoya Grampus Eight and Kawamura were scheduled to attend the signing ceremony, but it was scrapped after city officials and company staff discussed the matter.

(This article was compiled from reports by Kenji Seki.)