The chairman of the Japanese auto giant Toyota announced that the company will no longer be sponsoring the Olympics at the highest level, citing the Olympics’ “increasingly political” effect that overshadows athletes.
In 2015 Toyota signed an agreement to sponsor the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for ten years.
However, chairman Akio Toyoda stated in a podcast broadcast posted on the company’s YouTube site on Thursday that the carmaker had chosen to terminate the contract now that the Paris Games were ended.
“I’ve wondered for a while now whether the event is truly putting athletes first”, Toyoda said.
“It is also becoming increasingly political”.
The withdrawal means Olympics logos currently carried by Toyota products will be phased out, and its vehicles will no longer be provided to assist with the event, the chairman said.
Public broadcaster NHK said the company is also ending its Paralympics sponsorship deal.
“For me, the Olympics should simply be about watching athletes from all walks of life, with all types of challenges, achieve their impossible,” Toyoda told the US auto dealers.
Toyota follows another Japanese company Panasonic in ending their association with the Olympics.
Panasonic announced their withdrawal earlier this month citing “management considerations”.
