A Japanese Diet member has narrowly escaped punishment after daring to take a photograph of Emperor Akihito.
59-year-old DPJ upper house member Makoto Hirayama reportedly had the temerity to use his mobile phone to take a photograph of the Emperor as he was attending the Diet’s opening ceremony.
Such a serious incident demanded an investigation by his party, who questioned him and found that he had thought to take the photo as a memento of his meeting with the Emperor, and said that they do not intend to punish him for the act.
Hirayama has apologised mildly rather than slitting open his belly in the ancient and honourable manner, saying “it was reported on and caused a bit of a fuss.”
2ch is united in hatred of any and all Democrats, but even they are having tremendous difficulty in articulating just what it is he did wrong beyond belonging to the wrong party:
“Resign!”
“I hate those Democrats!”
“As expected of a dirty party of Koreans!”
“What a shameless bunch!”
“Didn’t he just snap a famous old celeb you hardly ever see?”
“Why is a simple photograph even an issue? Freedom of expression?”
“Have any of you lot ever spoken to this old grandpa? What percentage of Japanese have?”
“Isn’t this covered by anti-nuisance ordinances?”
“This MP is like some country bumpkin or something, taking pictures like that.”
“Emperor worship is pre-war stuff, a verbal reprimand is sufficient.”
“Revive lese-majesty and execute this traitor immediately!”
“There isn’t a rule against photographing him, right? This is just some pretext.”
“There is no ruder thing! Are you even Japanese!?”
“We may not be in a totalitarian system any more, so worshipping him that much is not necessary, but his manners and common sense are still awful all the same.”
“Everyone makes out as if before the war everyone just worshipped the emperor, but in reality it wasn’t like that at all.”
“Why are they letting him off?”
“The DPJ should just come out and say they hate Japan.”
“They don’t respect His Majesty the Emperor at all in that party. He’s the symbol of the nation, they don’t respect even that!”
“People who defile His Majesty the Emperor are treated as heroes in the DPJ!”
“He should be punished! You’d expect this from a party of Korean filth!”
“At least we don’t still have lese-majesty any more…”
“Are 50% of the DPJ ethnic Koreans or something?”
“The DPJ don’t even see this as a problem!”
“Oh come on, what nonsense are these crazy rightists spouting now – TV and mass media photograph him all the time? They report on him all the time? Do you need a license to photograph him or something? Seriously, what is the problem?”
“There’s no rule against it. But it is unprofessional and he should be sacked!”
“What is this, pre-war times? Will his soul be drained away if someone photographs him?”
Japan still has an emperor? And here I thought England was the only country with a puppet head of position from former times. At least he doesn’t live in the spotlight.
The Emperor doesn’t even have any authority or rule. He’s just an icon. I don’t see the big issue other than the fact that Japan is a looney right wing nation that would make even the most right wing members of Fox news look tame.
This remind me about the rules of Photographing of the Royalty in my nation.
1. It has to be done with their consents and the permissionfrom Royal Household bureau.
2. No digital camera please. ONLY good old rolls of analog films allowed unless there is an extraordinary circumstance.
3. All camara must be throughly inspected.
This news reminds me why my Japanese girlfriend loves Korean actors: Japanese politicians are naturally horrible “actors”.
You have to respect the leader, ’nuff said.
You begin by stealing a chicken and you end up using a gun.