Japan earthquake: Yukio edano, the 'Jack Bauer' of the crisis
Yukio Edano, Japan's chief government spokesman, has become an unlikely hero of the earthquake-tsunami crisis, became compared to 24's Jack Bauer for his tireless work ethic.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano Photo: EPA
2:53PM GMT 15 Mar 2011
Mr Edano, the chief cabinet secretary and the right-hand man of Naoto Kan, the prime minister, has appeared ever few hours on television in a blue emergency jumpsuit to update the nation.
But many are worried the man will collapse from a lack of rest since Friday's twin disasters. The hashtag #edano—nero is trending on the popular micro-blogging site - "nero" means "go to sleep" in Japanese.
One user named Kagetoramaru tweeted on Monday: "As of 20:30 let's all tweet #edano—nero, and make him go to sleep!"
A few hours later, another user named jolly0730 responded: "Our wish #edano—nero has been fulfilled. It looks like he's finally gone to bed."
The user even likened the spokesman to Jack Bauer, the lead character on the hit television show "24", about a tireless counter-terrorism agent who works around-the-clock to prevent major attacks in the United States.
"Apparently it's his first (sleep) in 105 hours. 105 hours, that means 4 seasons of '24'. That's four Jack Bauers. Thank you, Japan's Jack Bauer!" jolly0730 wrote.
At 5:00 am Tuesday, Mr Edano emerged on camera, his eyes red-rimmed as he took the podium to field questions from journalists. At 4:30 pm, he was back for more.
Matching Edano's efforts, Japan's military, called the Self-Defence Forces, have also earned a hashtag - #jietai—tabero, or "SDF, eat something."
Front page newspaper photos of soldiers combing through the debris left by the tsunami or offering silent prayers over the dead have endeared them to the public.
But not everyone is earning praise in the Japanese Twittersphere.
The hashtag #kan—okiro is also cropping up, ordering the prime minister to "wake up", in a veiled criticism of his handling of the massive quake, devastating tsunami and an escalating nuclear crisis.
On Tuesday, some Twitter users were debating whether to change the hashtag to kan—netero - "Kan, stay in bed".
Mr Kan is facing public anger over what some media commentators have called his slow response to the public about radiation leaks at a quake-hit nuclear power plant in the disaster zone, and planned electricity cuts.
Anger was also hurled at Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who was forced to apologise for describing Japan's deadly earthquake and tsunami as "divine punishment". His hashtag was #Ishihara—damare, or "Ishihara, shut up."
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