The new souvenir photo of Japanese cabinet members on the website of the Prime Minister’s Office is probably fake

You can see a fragment of a commemorative photo of the new cabinet members posted on the website of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (center) and other cabinet members are seen in a photo taken by the Mainichi Shimbun at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo, October 1, 2024. (Mainichi/Ririko Maeda)

TOKYO – A souvenir photo of Japan’s new cabinet is suspected of being doctored to improve its appearance before being published on the website of the prime minister’s office.

The image data contained traces of photo editing software. The Mainichi Shimbun contacted the Prime Minister’s Office regarding this matter, but received no response.

On October 1, the office of the new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was inaugurated. A commemorative photo session was held in his office after the investiture ceremony of the Prime Minister and the certification ceremony of other ministers at the Imperial Palace. Cabinet members wore formal attire, men in jackets, women in dresses or kimonos. During the photo session, Ishiba stood in the center of the front row, with Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism Tetsuo Saito on the left, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi and Interior and Communications Minister Seiichiro Murakami on the right.

Photos taken and distributed by the Mainichi Shimbun and other media showed white shirts under the jacket buttons on the stomachs of Ishiba and Nakatani, and the prime minister was wearing a belt.

There were plenty of comments on X (formerly Twitter) about their outfits, with some calling them “disgraceful” and “disheveled.” One X user even called it a “sloppy office.”

In turn, in one of the photos that the Prime Minister’s Office posted on its website in the “Prime Minister in action” section, Ishiba and Nakatani have higher waists and longer pants. Ishiba’s belt is also not visible. The photographic data showed traces of software use.

With the spread of fake news using rapidly developing artificial intelligence, news organizations are emphasizing the importance of trustworthy information. Mainichi distributes and publishes annotated images while blurring them, for privacy and other reasons.

(Japanese original: Digital News Group)