Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba fell asleep while being re-elected in Parliament

Japan’s parliament re-elected the prime minister on Monday, Shigeru Ishiba after his ruling coalition suffered its worst electoral defeat in more than a decade, forcing the embattled leader to form his second cabinet in just over a month since taking office. One fact: While the deputies voted, Ishiba slept.

Ishiba He apparently fell asleep during the parliamentary vote in which he was re-elected to said position by a simple majority, according to images of the session collected by local media and which have gone viral on the networks.

While Japanese parliamentarians were voting on who would be in charge of administering Japan in the new legislature, Ishiba appears with his head down and with his eyes closed. in a video captured by the national television network Nippon Television and which became a trend on platform X in the Asian country.

Sitting in the chamber next to the spokesperson for the Executive, Yoshimasa Hayashi, and the Minister of Finance, Katsunobu Kato, the Japanese Prime Minister I slept waiting for the results, that did not arrive until a second round of voting was held.

The popular Japanese actress Tomoko Mariya spoke like this on her

“I want him to resign”, “I can’t take it anymore” or “What a shame” were other comments by Japanese citizens on the aforementioned social network.

One user expressed: “It is something unprecedented that the new prime minister, who was elected in the Diet, sleeps so much. If you are not healthy enough to bear a great responsibility, I recommend that you resign to dedicate yourself to treatment.”

Japanese Internet users also commented on the attitude with which Hayashi and Taro Aso, baron of the LDP, appear in the Nippon Television images.

“Aso is with a face of disbelief. Why doesn’t Hayashi wake him up?” commented a citizen.

Ishiba, who won the vote in the Lower House as prime minister with a simple majority, faces a new and uncertain mandate together with his government partner, the Komeito Buddhist party, in the weakest position that a Japanese leader has had in the elections. last three decades.

The president assumed the position of prime minister of Japan on October 1 after winning the primaries of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and called early general elections for October 27, a decision with which he hoped to once again ensure the dominance of the formation that has governed almost uninterruptedly since 1955.

However, the discontent of the population due to inflation and economic stagnation and the illicit funds scandals led to a significant electoral decline as the PLD and the Komeito failed to maintain the absolute parliamentary majority they held together before the elections.