New Delhi: Japan’s Defence Minister Taro Kono, identified by the local media as a Prime Minister-hopeful, won the internet Saturday with a tweet showing two animated versions of himself dancing. The social media-savvy minister won hearts, with people lauding his dancing skills and requesting a live dance performance as well.
Reports say 57-year-old Kono has his eyes on the prime minister’s post, despite announcing his support Thursday for Yoshihide Suga, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, as the country’s next leader.
Japan’s prime ministerial post is up for grabs after Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister, announced his resignation on 28 August citing health reasons. He will however remain in his post till a successor is chosen.
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Defence minister with dance moves
The tweet showed two versions of the PM-hopeful, one in a mask and one without, dancing in a suit. Kono captioned the tweet “Me dancing”. The tweet not only won him praise as a cool defence minister but also left Twitter users waiting for more. The tweet received around 350 likes and 70 retweets.
But Kono wasn’t done just yet. He followed up the dancing tweet with another one after four hours. This second one showed a photo of the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration signing, which he captioned: “My grandfather at the signing of the Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration on October 19, 1956. He is the one looking at the ceiling.” In less than an hour, the tweet had 110 likes and 12 retweets.
The defence minister is no newbie to social media. Both his Japanese and English Twitter profiles combined have around 1.7 million followers. His social media following is uncharacteristic of any Cabinet minister in Japan, and is second only to Prime Minister Abe, who has about 2.1 million followers.
Taro Kono shot to the limelight after his decision in June to cancel the deployment of the Aegis Ashore land-based missile shield to protect four home islands from missile attacks, citing concerns that rocket boosters used on interceptor missiles could fall on civilian areas.
As a rationalist, he also stoked a political storm in August, after he said that women should be allowed to ascend to the country’s throne. In 2019, as foreign minister, he led a social media campaign to urge international media to use the family name first for Japanese names, as is the convention in Japanese.
His command over the English language, due to his education from Georgetown University is also seen as an advantage in communicating with foreign leaders.
Despite announcing his support for Suga, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s pick for the country’s top job, Kono has been open about his ambitions — “One day I will be the prime minister,” he said.
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