Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, made a series of visits to five western countries between January 9th and 14th. He went to France, then Italy, the UK, Canada and the US before returning to Tokyo.
On the agenda, there was a series of meetings with leaders and authorities of the host countries, such as the meeting with the American president, Joe Biden – a demonstration of unity against the increasing militarization of China.
The attitude of one of the members of Kishida’s entourage during his stay in Washington, however, was frowned upon by the Japanese. Seiji Kihara, the prime minister’s deputy chief of staff, was filmed with his hands in his pants pockets during a statement by Kishida about his desire to get closer to Biden.
Casualty at a serious moment in Japanese diplomacy was seen as a gaffe and earned Kihara criticism on social media and even a family scolding. In an interview with a YouTube channel, the 52-year-old politician said that he received a call from his mother in which she, furious, said she was embarrassed and suggested that he sew his own pockets so as not to repeat the gesture.
The act took place on January 13 while Kishida was giving an interview outside Blair House, the official residence of the US president’s guests. Excerpts of Kihara’s gaffe posted on social media show the politician, at first, with his hands in his pockets and looking up as the premier speaks. Afterwards, he adjusts his pants at the waist, stretches his jacket and crosses his hands in front of his body, in a posture of concentration between one and another gesture of assent to Kishida’s lines.
The detail would have gone unnoticed, but it was published by the Twitter profile of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. In the comments of the post, some users accused Kihara of being rude. On YouTube, he good-naturedly defended himself by saying that he often walks with his hands in his pockets and that he was focused on conveying the friendly relations between Japan and the US.
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, the Japanese is not the first political leader to be criticized for keeping his hands in his pockets at public events. Last year, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was criticized for watching leaders shake hands at a NATO summit while maintaining the same posture.
Also in Japan, in 2019, users on social networks reacted badly to a gesture by the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike. She had given a medal to the winner of a marathon in the Japanese capital and, afterwards, put her hands in her jacket pockets. “If her hands are too cold to be out of her pockets, then wear gloves,” read one comment on Twitter.
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