PM touts 'cute' Japan at fashion show

Nice work PM! Yes Japan should be cute, lively and cool just like you stud!

Oh my, do my eyes deceive me.

Is Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, introducing what appears to be a fluffy bule benevolent divine omniscience, whose vigilance is aided by "five", no less, no more, anglosphere, and a discerning toothy grin?

Assisted by gaggle nubile leggy young cuties?

Welcome to Japan, stay calm, its the 2025 Osaka World Expo, don't be afraid.

Have fun.

Ishiba should've worn the same outfit as the girls behind him, that coward.

What happened to "Cool Japan"?

Embarrassing!

That thing is horrific.

My god. He's wearing a pair of creased jeans (probably pleated to boot) with a a double-breasted blazer unbuttoned. You'd think Japan's head of government would have a stylist that would prevent a disaster like this. Also, that mascot looks like the aftermath if Grover from Sesame Street swallowed a live grenade...

Japan loves the “cute”, ok that’s a cultural thing but the rest of the world just thinks it’s infantile. As a sales image for all things Japanese it is a failure. Japan has much more adult imagery it can draw on to represent it’s self.

This was a FASHION show?

How ironic.

That thing is horrific.

Bit harsh!

Ishiba is arguably slightly better than the last PM.

A politician using the word, Kawai, a PM no less, in public???? And we wonder why the country can't fix its problems???

a) those are some seriously ill-fitting jeans.

b) that mascot is atrocious. What's it supposed to be - a virus? Nothing cute or cool about it.

c) Japan needs to cease and desist with the "kawaii" culture; it's toxic and dangerous, not to mention cringe-y.

He should wear comfortable clothes that fit him at an event like this. Let's just say, at least 2 items cannot be described with those terms. His tie is fine, but if there ever was a time to wear a "fish tie", this would be it.

As for the outfits worn by the young women, no comment. Not my taste.

Japan's LDP PM cannot see general citizen facing many difficulties such as rapid price hike that torturing people and expanding poverty, dangerousness of draft budget that deprive even opportunities of necessary treatment from patients and violate constitutional right to life, worst domestic wild fire during last decades.

I remember when they chose myaku-myaku as the mascot despite what was happening with Covid, and NO ONE seeming to approve of the design except the contest judges who had already decided beforehand. I was showing some foreign friends visiting Japan just today and they saw it in front of City Hall and said, "What the hell is THAT?!" They also didn't even know or care that Expo is being held here this year.

I don't think this photo represents Tokyo Girls Collection very well. It is a fashion show for regular street fashion, not a lolicon event as this photo makes it look. I only have a very passing interest, but its the first time I've ever seen models dressed like AKB or Morning Musume.

Ishiba looks like he's turned up in shifuku, i.e., his own clothes. I wouldn't have minded him buying an oversized jazzman-type suit and some funky glasses, think Trevor Horn, on the taxpayer dime. Or some other snazzy getup, maybe an A Bathing Ape hoodie, some Okayama otaku denim made on a machine from the 1930s and Onizuka Tigers if he wants to promote Japan. That's a poor effort from him for a fashion show.

Present problematic Japan is not the time for the Prime Minister to be doing such a thing.

If he was going to promote kawaii style or Jfashion in general, fair enough - it brings in the foreign currency. But he should have at least worn something that was stylish or amusingly outrageous. And that abomination has to be the worst mascot ever. What were they thinking? Don't Japanese politicians have PR folk to advise them?

Want to help the Japanese people?

Cut tax on food!

That mascot is far from cute, am I right?