Amid dismal approval ratings, Prime Minister Taro Aso is trying hard these days to shed his public image as an aloof, rich politician from an extremely wealthy family, perhaps with an eye toward appealing to voters when the time comes to call an election.
In the past month Aso has visited a supermarket to check food prices on shelves, gone to "shitamachi" working-class areas wearing a traditional happi coat and talked about "manga" comics before youngsters in Tokyo's Akihabara district, all the while smiling broadly for the TV cameras around him.
But he probably revealed his true colors Monday while talking about meals at cheap "izakaya" pubs in Tokyo, drawing strong reactions from thousands of pro- and anti-Aso users of 2channel, the country's largest Internet forum.