Japanese Twitter users were howling in derision on Wednesday after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe used paper models and cut-out firefighters on television, in his latest attempt to explain controversial security legislation.
Apparently concerned about declining public support and suspicion of bills that will allow so-called “collective defence”, Abe used props on two different programmes to try to persuade the public of his case. Under current laws “Japan cannot help the United States extinguish a fire” in an American home, he told viewers of Fuji TV on Monday, gesturing to a large paper house with a US flag.
Hanging over the paper house was something supposed to resemble fire -- viewers said it looked more like raw meat. Abe then placed an American fire truck in front of the house, along with the small cardboard figure of a firefighter.