Spot the difference: Japanese cabinet mocked for edited family photo

Doctored government image prompts slew of criticism, with one claiming it is an example of why the cabinet will be ‘short-lived’

The Japanese government has been mocked for doctoring an official photograph to make the cabinet look marginally more tidy.
Pictures taken by local media showed Shigeru Ishiba, Japan’s new prime minister, and the defence minister with the ends of their white shirts sticking out underneath their suits.
But an official photo issued by the prime minister’s office on Thursday showed everything in order.
After careful observers noticed the subtle changes, the government conceded on Monday that “minor editing was made” to the photograph.
Yoshimasa Hayashi, a government spokesman, said the photo needed editing as it would be “preserved forever as memorabilia” and that “minor editing is customarily performed” on official photos.
The editing backfired, provoking further ridicule online in Japan, known for its order and propriety.
“This is more hideous than a group picture of some kind of a seniors’ club during a trip to a hot spring. It’s utterly embarrassing,” one critic observed.
“The words ‘nursing home entrance ceremony’ are going round and round in my head,” another joked.
The episode had echoes of the scandal that rocked the British Royal family earlier this year, when Kate Middleton came under fire for editing a family photograph.
In Japan, the editing led to observers also pointing out a whole host of problems with the original photograph, including faces masked in shadows, people looking away, the height differences among the back row. “They need a stylist,” one person wrote online.
“It’s just sloppy and unreliable,” another said, adding that “this kind of image” is why the cabinet will be “short-lived”.
The photo, taken on Thursday, came after the first meeting of Japan’s new cabinet.
A few days earlier, Mr Ishiba, 67, replaced outgoing prime minister Fumio Kishida, after he stepped down on Oct 1 following a series of political scandals.
Mr Ishiba, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party is a former defence minister who backed the formation of an “Asian Nato”.
His new cabinet has already faced backlash for its lack of gender diversity, with only two women selected for relatively minor roles within the 19-member team, down from five in the outgoing cabinet.
A snap election is set for Oct 27, a year before it had been due to take place, in order to decide which party controls parliament’s lower house.
“It is important for the new administration to be judged by the people as soon as possible,” Mr Ishiba said last week.