Tokyo Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori on Thursday apologized for making sexist remarks about women, saying he retracted the comments but that he would not resign, despite calls for him to step down.

The hashtag "Mori, please resign" was trending on Twitter in Japan on Thursday morning, and some users on the platform were calling on sponsors to pressure the Tokyo Organising Committee into dropping Mori from the top post.

The 83-year-old Mori, a former prime minister and head of the Tokyo organizing committee, acknowledged that his comments that women talked too much were "inappropriate" and against the Olympic spirit.