Attention!

LDP Secretary-General Nakagawa Hidenao decided he needed to put his foot down on recent ministerial puttings on of airs...and you gotta know that if it is upon you that Nakagawa Kanjichō puts his foot, it's gonna hurt.

So as to avoid getting stomped by the less-than-svelte Nakagawa, the entire Cabinet made a very fine showing of jumping up out of their seats and bowing deeply to the PM as he strode purposefully into the regular Tuesday Cabinet meeting this morning.

It seems that in recent weeks, certain unnamed ministers have kept their keisters planted in the Cabinet meeting room's comfy chairs as the PM has been making his entrances.

Seeing that this may (?) be a demonstration a certain contempt or at least a distinct lack of loyalty (chuseishin) to the Prime Minister, the order came down from high to show the PM a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Seems like Nakagawa got his way.

Courtesy: Jiji Tsūshin

Okumura Jun offers a detailed take on the Cabinet's show of loyalty over at Global Talk 21.

My only quibble with Okumura-san's presentation is that he does not underscore how fearsome Nakagawa Hidenao is. I watched Nakagawa walk through a room full of CEOs of Fortune Global 500 companies when he was just Chairman of the Policy Research Council. These CEOs of some of the world's largest companies and even some serving Cabinet ministers leaped out of Nakagawa's path, turning around and damn near curtsying to him in abnegation.