As you may have heard, Japan's Finance Minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, has quit after appearing drunk at this weekend's G7 Summit in Rome. Reports the New York Times:
The minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, raised eyebrows for slurred speech, muddled answers and appearing to fall asleep at a news conference in Rome on Saturday. A clip of Mr. Nakagawa in which he appeared to be groggy in front of journalists was posted on YouTube.
After intense criticism from politicians who said he had embarrassed Japan, Mr. Nakagawa stepped down on Tuesday, adding to the woes of a government that is facing a backlash for its handling of the economic crisis.
The footage actually is pretty crazy. I mean, there's just a bare minimum of decorum that we expect from our world leaders, and obviously the Greatest President of All Time, George W. Bush, who I would most want to get a beer with, lowered the bar on that one anyway, where now all you really need to do to look professional and stately is to literally NOT BE ASLEEP.
Sleep Drunk Man Minister after the jump.
Now he's the purveyor of, he's the generator of, he's the author of drunk stuff. Classic.
