Tired PM

Now this is a total embarrassment for Japan. To have a Prime Minister sleep on the job is a total disgrace. I bet if anyone in Japan who is working at a regular company does this, he or she will probably be reprimanded in a very harsh way. This goes to show you the Prime Minister Kan seems to be totally over worked by useless things thats costing the tax payers a lot of money and a lot of wasted time. So sad.

Thunderbirds are go....

alladin.

Guess you never been in a weekly meeting(monday morning) here.

So he took a nap, not the first pic we have seen here of politicians catching a wink.

'To have a Prime Minister sleep on the job is a total disgrace".

Where does it say he is sleeping? Praying maybe.

Zenny11 >>> I have been in many weekly meetings here in Japan, infact I actually have daily briefings and meetings about what is going on with the daily progress in the company that I`m presently working at. As for myself, I have never slept in a meeting that I attended.

Okinawamike >>> If he is not sleeping, then he must have taken a short 2 minute nap. The article does not have to state that he was sleeping. Just look at the picture and you can physically see what he is doing.

Now this is a total embarrassment for Japan. To have a Prime Minister sleep on the job is a total disgrace.

Where does it say he was asleep??

It says:

Prime Minister Naoto Kan closes his eyes

Quit over-reacting...

PM Kan isn't sleeping at all. He's simple zenning it, and being Japanese, that's totally OK. :-)

Exactly, it just says that he closes his eyes. I hope he won't resign.

Certainly not practicing his golf swing. This dude is sleeping.

Subahanallah. You should kiss him. He is reaching old age.

If he was sleeping, his mouth would be hanging open, drooling, and head on the shoulder of the passenger next to him!

Is he not doing the 'tip your head to one side and then to the other' thing that the ojisans do when they're stressed?

This is a total embarrassment for the politicians who brought this to a vote.

He looks like a corpse, nothing more.

PM Kan closed his eyes while votation is going on. Perhaps he doesn't want to see those who will vote for him or against him. He looks tired! This "no confidence" motion is just a waste of time instead of helping on how to speed-up the reconstruction and recovery.

While his critics have been badmouthing him, never did I encounter any article that says... he badmouthed them in return. Kan us a good man! This is also one of the reason why this "no confidence" thing didn't materialized. The opposition are just afraid that if Kan succeeds in rebuilding this nation, LDP will never taste to rule this country again.

Why do you assume he is asleep? Just because at the moment in time that they shutter was closed, so were Kan's eyelids? Alladin, do you never blink? When you go, "Whew!" thinking, that was a close call, do your eyes stay open?

(I will grant that there's something corpse-like in the pose).

What Kan does best.

This just in "a head tilt to either side when seated with your eyes closed means you nodded off". Shocking!

Well done Kan BABY! If people don't know many, most Japanese will close their eyes in meetings, on trains, in discussion. Not sleep.

This photo is not news. He could have had his eyes closed for a few seconds, he could have been sound asleep--in any case, both political malaise and photos like this are cliche. You see these photos all the time. Means nothing, except how stagnant public discourse is in this country.

Mmmm donuts...

he is dreaming a new paradise when he could work another term, but not easy at all. The Diet actually responded by conscience and social responsibility.

Sweet dreams Naoto chan, please do not resign. Things will get better in time and just think of that backstabbing loser that will become PM.

I commend PM Kan for making it through a year and look forward to the next "savior" that the Diet will turn against as soon as possible.

Abe, Fukuda, Aso, Hatoyama, Kan....5 consecutive one-year PMs that were supposed to "change" things for the better. Maybe the problem is that the whole system is dysfunctional and the PM is more like a titular leader who provides little more than the face of the leading party in power for a time.

Perhaps the only way to partially overcome this is to have a maverick, a "henjin" so to speak, like ex-PM Koizumi, to actually shake things up for a few years.

PM Kan has been frustrated with the Japan politics where most politicians are hearing impaired. Japan's biased media and stubborn public poll opinion politics will continue to be normal. Do you really think any members of LDP really care about the people in Japan? They have not show anything from the past. I doubt Ozawa or anybody else can do anything better to improve Japan's quality of life. In Japan politics, the bickering goes on like little boys with tantrum in Japan. Only in Japan and things work reasonably well without the prime minister. Maybe Japan should pass a law that no prime minister is needed to run the country. This will calm the bickering.

This photo is screaming for a word balloon above his head.

Kan says: "Uuuuunnnnn, Nemui-yo---. Owattara Dareka Okoshite-ne!"

"I kan't[can't] keep my eyes open. Time to catch z. Zzzzz....."

Is he not doing the 'tip your head to one side and then to the other' thing that the ojisans do when they're stressed?

Yeah, that's it alright. But it's not only ojisans - my wife does it too when we have a disagreement and I am talking. I think it means "Why do I have to sit here and put up with listening to this complete load of rubbish".