The prime minister Japanese, Shigeru Ishibastayed apparently asleep this Monday during the parliamentary vote in which he was re-elected for said position by a simple majority, according to images of the session collected by local media and which have gone viral in the networks.
While the Japanese parliamentarians were voting on who would be in charge of the to administer Japan in the new legislature, Ishiba appears crestfallen and with his eyes closed in a video captured by the national television channel Nippon Television and became a trend on the X platform in the Asian country.
Sitting on the floor next to Executive Spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi and Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato, the Japanese prime minister slept while awaiting the resultswhich did not come until a second round of voting was held. Popular Japanese actress Tomoko Mariya commented on her X account about the images of Ishiba sleeping in the Diet: “There should be a rule of no sleeping during the voting for the prime minister.
“I want him to resign”, “I can’t take it anymore” or “Shame on you”. were other comments by Japanese citizens on the aforementioned social network. One user said: “It is unprecedented that the new prime minister sleeps so much. If you are not healthy enough to bear a big responsibility, I recommend that you resign to devote yourself to treatment”.
A new and uncertain mandate
Japanese netizens also commented on the attitude with which Hayashi and LDP baron Taro Aso appear in the Nippon Television footage. “Aso stands with a gesture of disbelief.Why doesn’t Hayashi wake him up?” one citizen commented.
Ishiba, who prevailed in Monday’s lower house vote as prime minister with a simple majority, faces a new and uncertain mandate together with his governing partner, the Buddhist Komeito party, in the weakest position for a Japanese leader in the last three decades.
The president took office as Prime Minister of Japan on October 1, 2010 after winning the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) primaries and called an early general election for October 27, a decision with which he hoped to secure again the dominance of the party that has ruled almost uninterruptedly since 1955.
However, the discontent of the population with the inflation and economic stagnation and the illicit funds scandals led to a significant electoral decline as the LDP and the Komeito failed to maintain the absolute parliamentary majority they held together before the elections.