The Brownshirts have gone digital and they’ve cancelled Grandpa

The Brownshirts are back and this time they’re digital, best exemplified on 18 February when 22-year-old student activist Momoko Nojo took to Zoom to brag to the world about getting the 83-year-old Japanese politician Yoshiro Mori cancelled. Earlier that month, as the then President of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), Mori had expressed the opinion that women talk too much in meetings. Highly offended, Nojo promptly started an online campaign calling for Mori’s resignation as President of JOC, complete with the hashtag #DontBeSilent and a petition that gained over 150,000 signatures.

Despite being a recipient of the Grand Officier Légion d’Honneur in 2010 and a former Prime Minister of Japan, Mori was unable to…