A Japanese composer will no longer be participating in the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, an event for which he wrote music. Keigo Oyamada, who performs as Cornelius and has been likened to American musician Beck, resigned after apologizing for bullying classmates years ago, the Washington Post reports. In 1994 and 1995 Oyamada bragged in interviews that he had abused classmates in school, including forcing one boy to eat feces, the Daily Beast reports. Officials did not initially accept Oyamada’s resignation, saying he was sufficiently contrite, but then reversed that decision, NPR reports.
Oyamada, now 52, says he lacked consideration in those days and promised to do better in the future. The music he wrote won’t be used in the opening ceremony, and he won’t participate in the Paralympics, either. Advocates for people with disabilities strongly protested using work from someone who had bragged about bullying people with disabilities, per the AP. The revelation of Oyamada’s past bullying and subsequent resignation is the latest scandal in a troubled and long-delayed 2020 Games, set to start Friday in Tokyo while Japan is in a state of emergency. (More 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games stories.)
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