Yoshiro Mori announced on Friday his resignation as president of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, finally succumbing to an onslaught of criticism triggered by sexist comments he made earlier this month.

“There has been much turmoil in recent weeks due to my inappropriate behavior, and for that I apologize,” Mori said Friday during the opening remarks of an emergency meeting between Tokyo 2020 executive board members.

“What’s most important is successfully holding the Tokyo Games in July,” he said. “There can be no interruptions to those efforts.”