Perhaps the best that can be said about a “stay home” tweet from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is that it’s given bored copycats sitting at home waiting out the coronavirus ample inspiration.
It apparently rubbed many people frustrated by Abe’s handling of the crisis the wrong way. Abe, like US President Donald Trump, has faced accusations his moves to counter the coronavirus were too little, too late. Until late March, Abe’s administration was still insisting the Tokyo Olympics would go ahead as planned in July. It’s now been postponed until July 2021.
Abe declared a month-long state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures deemed at highest risk of an explosion of coronavirus infections just last Tuesday. The government asked people in those areas — later expanded to all of Japan — to stay at home.
But the “stay home” message has incensed many who note that most Japanese cannot remain at home because the government’s social distancing policy is voluntary and doesn’t come with compensation for cash-strapped workers.
The video posted on Twitter, on a split screen accompanied by a guitar-playing popular singer, shows Abe sitting at home looking bored. Abe reading a book. Abe cuddling his dog, sipping from a cup and flipping channels with a remote.
“You cannot see your friends or organise drinking parties, but your actions are surely saving many lives,” says the video’s written message. “Everyone please cooperate.”
The sight of Abe, heir to a wealthy political dynasty, in such genteel surroundings hasn’t resonated well with families being asked to stay cooped up in cramped apartments and with workers still having to commute, since many Japanese companies have been slow to switch to remote work. Some people have lost their jobs or had their salaries cut.
“An elegant tweet despite a national crisis,” blared a headline in the Nikkan Sports tabloid. “Abe the aristocrat!!”
Many on Twitter mocked Abe with their own satirical versions of his poses, including one person who did so in the nude with “stay home” messages written in marker on his bare chest and tummy, his privates camouflaged with props including a Chinese lion dance head he cuddled as if it was a pet.
“Who does he think he is?” said one commentator.
“He is so out of touch.”
“It was an extremely visual way of understanding the prime minister’s lack of awareness, and I’m just appalled,” tweeted Takanori Fujita, a professor at Seigakuin
University who runs a non-profit support group for the homeless, jobless or others in financial difficulties.