The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Bach corrects Chinese slip-up in Olympic talks; calls Tokyo best-ever prepared host city
By STEPHEN WADE TOKYO©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
91 Comments
Login to comment
Blacklabel
If he was already unwelcome he certainly is even more so now. “The Chinese people”? Ouch.
BertieWooster
Bach corrected his mistake, but probably what was going on in his head was something like, "Chinese? Japanese? What's the difference?"
tamanegi
“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games,"
Thankyou Mr President. Tokyo will fight for you.
jason
And how much does he earn? Unacceptable gaff.
shogun36
Yes, Bach yes...........keep them coming.
Was there video evidence of this?
We need a good social media video to kick things off.
Good stuff.
rainyday
(Checks list of things the IOC could possibly do to further tarnish their image in Japan)
"OK, who had Bach referring to the hosts as Chinese people for June 13th?"
Aly Rustom
Shows the man's true colors
JGhetto
He thinks we all look alike. What a sorry creature this old old man is.
BitHed
Dazed after all his days in isolation ..
Some dude
That’s a Prince Philip-level faux pas.
And as for “best-ever prepared host city”…he must have Academy Award level acting skills to say that with a straight face.
Aly Rustom
You'd think he'd know where he was after 2 weeks of quarantine...
Give him another 2 weeks.
shogun36
What show has he been watching?
Cricky
Just when you think these people know what they are doing, you hold out hope that at least one of them does! And this on his first outing with the media? This whole Olympics thing has already turned out to better than any sitcom I could imagine. I actually don’t want it to end as each day brings more hilarious high jinx from a cast of comic geniuses.
drlucifer
3 days of quarantine in a presidential suite in a 5 star hotel has done so much damage
to Bach brain, I dread to think what the outcome would have been if he had to undergo
2 weeks of quarantine like we plebs do.
Fighto!
Unbelievable arrogance from this entitled politician.
Bach does not know the difference between Chinese and Japanese. Nor does he care anyway. The awful slow trainwreck will proceed, ignoring the wishes of most Japanese, and the medical professionals.
Sickening show.
Jim
When will Japan stop using these decades old table/chair in conference rooms - looks so shabby and old style??
Notice right side to King Bach are Prince Coates and Lord Sebastian Coe from UK (he is officially awarded the title of Lord in UK) - also not one person has any paper or laptop/ipad anything in front of them - this is purely a PR photo operation to show the world how hard King Bach is working to deserve his $$$$ income?
Moderator: Sebastien Coe is not there. You are referring to IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi.
Aly Rustom
Make sure to explain to him that it is in fact Tokyo and not Beijing.
Fighto!
2 weeks? Umm, no.
Try 3 days.
Aly Rustom
I guess he DOES need 2 weeks then to figure out he's in Japan not China..
smithinjapan
He had already filled in the blank for next year’s Winter Olympics.
wanderlust
'Us' and 'Them', or maybe the 'Payers' and the 'Payees!'
noriahojanen
Bach can compensate the mishap by calling "Japanese people!" in Beijing for the Winter Games :)
spinningplates
It's O.K. to make a mistake like that.
The Chinese athletes hotel and it's obvious failure to quarantine were probably at the front his mind.
It's not O.K. to take us for fools and lie though.
“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games,"
The JOC, Japanese Government and Koike are all just making this stuff up on the fly. The preparations are inadequate.
quercetum
It’s the lowest insult for the Japanese to be mistaken for a Chinese.
Jim
@Mods
Thanks for clarification - my mistake.
OssanAmerica
Either Bach is absurdly intellectually challenged for a person his position and really doesn't think there's any difference between Chinese people and Japanese people, or, it was a Freudian slip and he intends to push for the 2022 Beijing Olympics even if the entire world boycotts it in response to China's genocide in the in U.A.R.
Guess money talks.
Bjorn Tomention
He and his friends at the top are disgusting arrogant over entitled greedy and insulting !
Now take what you about the people of Japan bach, bach !
Stop insulting Japanese people !
Bjorn Tomention
He does not even know where he is or is it becuase he has taken so much chinese money he has things mixed up in his head.
snowymountainhell
*“See-tee-rike! “One!” *
- can we hope for “Two” ?
Nobnaga
yeah sure let me call them the best ever prepared host city for one reason
cuz im racist and i show it in a freaking meeting like this lol
umbrella
Covid Olympic road show rolls on... Laughed out load at this one!
Cricky
You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games," Bach said
After 3 days quarantine that’s a big call. Everyone was pleased he didn’t appear in the Hotel bathrobe.
umbrella
sorry.. laughed out loud!
Sven Asai
Best ever prepared? Yes, even those little viruses would agree if they could.
Rocket Lees
To Bach, we all look the same -- like taxpaying peasants.
snowymountainhell
Bach’s slumped shoulders is the 3rd photo indicate disappointment… “Does this mean I won’t be able to see “The Great Wall”? …of Honshu?
Chico3
Now, that's a laugh! I'd like to hear what was his worst prepared city. That really is completely hysterical! If anything, prepared to fill his pocket.
Frank
Seriously, I teach English in better looking rooms than that.
JGhetto
@PSmith: Excellent article.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3524296/
Thank you
Blacklabel
The guy had one job.
J-a-p-a-n.
Really should have rehearsed "the people of Japan" instead of trying say "Japanese people" and totally messing it up.
Thats even better because it includes ALL the people that are here, not just "Japanese".
Seesaw7
Bach tripped over his words while addressing his Japanese hosts, referring to the “Chinese people” rather than “Japanese people” as he spoke
Oops, what a blunder!
Bach.... go home.
Meiyouwenti
He’s more interested in the 2021 Winter Olympics in Beijing than the one coming up next week.
Roblib
Lol that's a pretty bad slipup, can't imagine how he could make any kind of excuse for that. Jet lag?? Awful!
BunkerBilly
I understand his mistake though...so many countries line his pockets, it is easy to forget where he is.
OssanAmerica
It's not just the Japanese. It's everybody in Asia, from South Korea to Vietnam.
obladi
Indeed it was captured on video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WDfgyoqaa8
good for a late-afternoon chuckle
Tora
Bach was obviously jetlagged so shouldn't have been expected to perform his best, so let's forgive him.
But let's not care about the athletes, most of whom will fly in just before their event, and yet be expected to compete at peak performance in the furnace that will be Tokyo.
Phil
If his movements in Tokyo are limited, how can he travel to Hiroshima within the 14 days? He arrived on the 8th July
Fighto!
Never.
Bach, Coe, Coates, Dick Pound and every single man and woman attached to the IOC can NEVER be forgiven.
These politicians are entitled, contemptuous and dismissive of Japanese people to the point of racism.
kyronstavic
When you're at the top of a stinking pile of ****, 14 days means whatever you want it to mean. I wasn't aware that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are suburbs of Tokyo. But there you go!
Further evidence that the global elite are laughing themselves silly at the manufactured panic, lockdowns and vaccination blitz. The spectator-free Olympic circus is just icing on the cake.
Bob Fosse
Ouch. That’s quite a faux pas.
Mickelicious
He can travel in dedicated transport - a car or minivan - with a plastic sheet sealing the masked driver off from the rear masked passengers: his own little bubble, with no unauthorised stops or deviation en route. That's the protocol.
kohakuebisu
And most eikaiwa staff know how to put up a poster. Look at the back of the room here.
Bob Fosse
Good evening Cleveland! Are you ready to rock?! Oh, errr, Good evening Chicago! Are you ready to roooock?!
Mark
3 days? Ahhhhhh, bless him!
Must be tough ,all that kaiseki room service!
n1k1
LOL ! The Chinese people bit is so funny ! I am starting to like this bloke ! He should give a speech on the televised opening ceremony !
Tokyo-Engr
He proves once again how little regard he has for the Japanese people and he probably does not think highly of Asian people in general.
The folks in Hiroshima are right for not wanting that trash there.
xin xin
Good. Let's cancel the winter Olympics lest he makes another mistake again and causes a war.
snowymountainhell
Bach needs immediate testing & isolation. - Disorientation & Anosmia, the inability to distinguish different cultural smells & tastes, are alarming symptoms of possible CoVid infection.
NCIS Reruns
Just remember, Herr Bach -- Japanese drive on the left, and Chinese on the right. It's not rocket science, you'll figure it out.
qazwsx
I can’t verify it, but on another site I saw that he is supposedly staying in the Imperial Suite at the Hotel Okura which goes for a price of ¥3 million per night. According to the site I saw, the IOC is paying ¥50,000 a night, the organizers which of course means taxpayers, are paying the rest
kaimycahl
Bach corrects Chinese slip-up in Olympic talks; this only means he is already looking forward to the winter Olympics in China!!
vendingmachinemusic
Glad to know his expensive hotel uses the same carpet tiles from my local home center.
goldeneagle
Was it too hard to write that $8.7 billion is public money, or is this just a way to throw the lower number for public?
kokontozai
Oh, idiot
Septim Dynasty
Kazuo Shii is so right.
https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2021052700943/
After the collapse of the bubble economy, Japan lost respect from the West. These Western elites barely consider Japan as a nation more than a neo-colony, by the US for military bases and IOC/financial institutions as cash cows.
Bach is the latest representation of what global elites really think about Japan. They are really looking forwards to the Beijing Olympics 2022, not Tokyo 2021. Regardless of how much Japan is paying these Westerners to say, the global elites won't ever respect Japan at all.
sf2k
That's a gaff from not respecting people just here to pick up his cashola, can't wait to rake in the profits. Other than checking himself to know where he is that's about it
therougou
I doubt people will think that when they see the boring events with empty stadiums. Although I think they should have allowed fans even in the current situation, they wouldn't be in this mess if Tokyo had gotten the vaccination rollout right.
Wolfpack
Ahhh Bach!
TARA TAN KITAOKA
Please leave 75% of Japanese people do not welcome u .please stop this Olympics.
CrashTestDummy
This guy is really the President of the IOC? Bach doesn't even know what country he is in AND only had to spend 3 days in isolation. He should spend 14 days in isolation like everyone else. Only for thee, and not for me privileges of the oligarchs. The virus doesn't transmit from high powered people?
kurisupisu
Bach just knows how to endear himself to the host nation.
Still, it’s an easy mistake to make...
Boku Dayo
This is where Anton Chighur says "You don't know what you're talking about, do you?".
Honestly, the mere presence of Thomas Bach is an insult to the people of Japan.
Please leave immediately.
J @Tokyo
Best prepared city except for the failure to vaccinate the vast majority of the population in the host city despite countries of similar wealth accomplishing this months ago.
RowanM
If you want to cut down circulation on crowded trains, give businesses incentives to let people work from home more so they don't have to get on the trains at all. Most people who go out to drink are ALREADY OUT from a day at work, so there's not much reduction in trains when they have to ride one home anyway-- they're just earlier.
But instead we're going to just make people miserable but not do anything to actually make things better.
Wolfpack
Well, that’s “the science” - or something like that
jerry
asians are all the same to him