Shuwattchi!

Michael One day, I noticed a poster hanging in the window of a building that looked like a trade union center. On it, a Japanese person appeared to be giving the Hitler salute! Wow, I thought, the Japanese Nazi party, I absolutely have to report on this! And I quickly took a photo (Figure 1). Back home, I asked my Japanese colleague at work what it was all about.

The pose is by no means associated with a right-wing political group, but rather comes from the popular Japanese TV series "Kamen Rider", whose Superman-like hero, whenever he transforms into Superman (in Japanese: enters "Rider" mode), strikes this pose and shouts "Shuwattchi!" The gesture and expression are widely understood in Japan, and the poster, if you understand the Kanji characters, is simply promoting that employees should keep their social security information up to date. Ha!