After being handed a fourth term as president of the Social Democratic Party without a vote, Mizuho Fukushima on Dec. 4 took her seat at the SDP's headquarters in Tokyo and faced reporters to give her victory speech.
But the celebratory bouquet of flowers blocked the petite lawmaker from cameras, and party officials quickly stopped Fukushima and replaced her chair with a taller stool.
"Sorry, please hold on just a second," Fukushima, who serves as the consumer affairs minister in the Cabinet, told reporters shyly.