Japanese Politician Freaks Out, Spawns Internet Memes

Yesterday, Japanese politician Ryutaro Nonomura, a member of the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly that represents areas like Kobe, held a press conference after being accused of allegedly abusing government funds. Make that, he freaked out and started crying. Last year, Nonomura racked up travel expenditures with tax payers’ money in excess of 3 million yen (around US$29,547) for trips around Hyogo Prefecture, which borders Osaka, as well as jaunts to Tokyo and Fukuoka. As Kobe Shimbun reports, Nonomura submitted expenses for 195 trips without providing any receipts. Included in that were over one hundred trips to Kinosakionsen, a hot springs resort town famous in Hyogo. There is nothing suspicious about that at all. Online in Japan, the politician’s outburst has been amusing people online with just how odd it was. Many were also upset because this appears to be a questionable use of tax money. Though, according to news reports, this kind of stuff isn’t illegal. Um… “Be a man! Don’t cry!” wrote one YouTube user. “This is so embarrassing. Is he drunk?” asked another. Nonomura’s Wiki page was actually edited to include the speech, with someone way transcribing all the “waah” and “waaaaah” noises. Courtesy of website Byokan Sunday, you can see an image above, and the “waaaaaaaaaaaah” noises in Japanese are hopefully readily apparent even to English speakers. Nonomura’s Wiki, sadly, no longer currently features said transcript. The incident made that national news and is starting to spawn Photoshops on Twitter, some of which you can see below: [Photo: KINOcom] [Photo: panpikkle] [Photo: maria330eren] [Photo: kunu_ami_2525] [Photo: dunhill_om] Nonomura is wearing a Japanese World Cup jersey, and the text quotes u31.com เข้าสู่ระบบ when he said, “This Japan…” GEDDIT? [Photo: u31 ทางเข้า mugitya] 野々村県議の政務活動費問題　他会派「本人が説明を」[Kobe Shimbun] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and u31 เข้าสู่ระบบ beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.