Ryutaro Nonomura's Crying Apology

About

Ryutaro Nonomura's Crying Apology refers to a press conference held by the Japanese assemblyman from Hyogo Prefecture to apologize to the public after coming under allegations of misusing government funds for personal travel in July 2014. During the address, Nonomura, overwhelmed with emotions, began wailing uncontrollably, and the footage instantly went viral after it was uploaded to YouTube.

Origin

On July 1st, 2014, Japanese politician Ryutaro Nonomura held a press conference to apologize for his suspected misuse of 3 million yen (roughly $30,000 USD). However, during the address, the 47-year-old provincial politician started to break down in tears while trying to defend his actions and began wailing uncontrollably. That same day, a video clip depicting his outburst was uploaded by YouTuber Vivipandanzon (shown, below), garnering over 800,000 views within its first 24 hours. By July 3rd, the video had received more than 3 million views.

Spread

In the following days, the wailing of Ryutaro Nonomura inspired a slew of photoshopped images, as well as MAD videos mocking Nonomura's forced crying across the web, most notably via Twitter^[1] and Nico Nico Douga (NND).^[2] The story was also quickly covered by both Japanese and English-language news sites overseas, most notably Kotaku^[3], NewsAsia^[4], The Japan Times^[5], The Independent^[6] and The Guardian^[7].

Notable Examples

Photoshopped Parodies

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

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