The organizing committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has set up an advisory council consisting of 170 people from various parts of society to make sure the games are an "all-Japan" effort.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, who was convicted of insider trading and falsifying financial statements in 2005, was among those appointed Thursday. The 80-year-old, once ranked the world's richest man, will serve as a special adviser to the panel.
Finance Minister Taro Aso, prime minister for one year from September 2008, was also named despite a history of making controversial statements. He once said the ideal country would be one that attracts "the richest Jewish people" and compared the opposition Democratic Party of Japan to the Nazis.
The advisory panel will be chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Other panel members include Sadako Ogata, former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2000 Olympic women's marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi and former Tokyo 2020 bid ambassador Christel Takigawa.
"We set up an advisory council to reinforce 'all-Japan' efforts within the organizing committee," Yoshiro Mori, president of the organizing committee, explained after an executive board meeting at a Tokyo hotel.
Governors of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, which were heavily devastated by the March 2011 earthquake-tsunami disasters, were also appointed to the council.
Mori also said he will visit Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures this month to exchange opinions on ways to help the area recover.
"I'd like to ask what the public in the disaster-affected prefectures needs and hopes for, and how they view (the 2020 Olympics)," he said.
Information from AP added