Prime Minster Abe tells Trump that imperial succession is “100 times bigger” than the Super Bowl

http://bit.ly/2UQcta8 Scott Wilson

Just without the commercials and disappointing halftime shows.

During a meeting at the White House last Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with U.S. President Trump about the upcoming imperial succession, when current Emperor Akihito will step down from the throne and let his son take over.

We already knew that Trump will be the first guest that the new Emperor Naruhito will be meeting with, but what we didn’t know is that the President was concerned with how big an event the succession would be.

The President first expressed hesitation with wanting to go to the event, saying: “Enh, I don’t know if I want to go or not.” He then followed up with: “Tell me. How big is that event compared to the Super Bowl for the Japanese?” Prime Minister Abe replied with: “About 100 times bigger,” to which Trump said, “I’ll go. If that’s the case, I’ll go.”

▼ “It’ll be great. We’ll get some hats, get some Trump Burgers. Best succession ever!”

Earlier, the conversation began with Trump saying: “It’s the first time this has happened in 130 years. It’s a very extraordinary event. A really amazing event.”

Abe then replied with: “The Emperor is abdicating the throne for the first time in 200 years. His first guests will be President Trump and the First Lady.” Whether or not he was intentionally correcting Trump on the years is unclear, but we can’t for sure say he wasn’t.

Here’s how Japanese netizens responded to the Super Bowl/succession comparison:

“This sounds like bad American-joke copypasta.”
“Trump really knows how to grab us Japanese by the hearts.”
“Is he a middle schooler? lol”
“They’re just a couple of old pals now, Trump and Abe, aren’t they?”
“That sly old Abe!”
“The succession is definitely on a different level entertainment-wise than the Super Bowl….”
“Wait, what’s a ‘Super Bowl?'”

We’re definitely looking forward to the succession ceremony, and we hope it lives up to Trump’s standards. But even if it doesn’t, maybe he can still make his trip to Japan worthwhile by looking for a copy of the “bishonen” parody manga about his son Barron.

Source: Yahoo! News Japan via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Wikimedia Commons
Insert image: Wikimedia Commons/内閣官房内閣広報室
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