Polish president's shogun joke shock in Japan
PR dla Zagranicy
Aleksander Nowacki
02.03.2015 12:34
Polish president, Bronisław Komorowski caused consternation of his Japanese hosts and domestic observers with some off-colour jokes during an official visit on Friday.
President Bronisław Komorowski (L) and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk
During a photo opp at the Japanese parliament, the president asked his national-security adviser, General Stanisław Koziej, to join him by addressing him as “shogun”, the title of Japan’s effective rulers until the mid-nineteenth century and of a television series popular in Poland in the 1980s.
Komorowski also mounted the chair of the speaker of Japan’s Diet, an act that apparently discomfited his hosts. He stood in the chair while wearing his shoes.
The presidential office dismissed the awkwardness as inconsequential. (an)
Source: PAP