The Hot Seat

Mr. Prime Minister, your ass is on fire.

Courtesy: Sankei Shimbun
April 18, 2007

This is one of the weird ones.

First of all, his pants are not pulled down.

Ostensibly this is a reference to the TOTO Burning Toilet problem , not to be confused with the TOTO You Must Be Kidding Me problem, where the company is the main sponsor of Matsutoya Yumi's concert featuring a water show and synchronized swimming.

Now the warmth he is feeling is being regulated, according to the arm rest, by his support numbers from the latest polls, which have risen since last week's summit.

[This is just an aside--but have you noticed how Abe's popularity numbers rise when he does something contrary to his nature, like staying away from Yasukuni and keeping calm about China's rising power, and fall when he follows his instincts?

Fascinating how this is the diammetric opposite of the way poll numbers would move under Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichirō.]

The cartoonist, however, seems to be telling the PM that the "Oh warm and fuzzy, a warm feeling...oh it feels so good I'm getting used to it now" tingling is not a good thing but a prelude to a butt burning.

I'm not quite sure what the message is here (something to do with not feeling too comfortable before the next rounds of local elections and the House of Councillors election in July)...but I like it.