Eimi Fukada: Jacinda Ardern greeted by giant SAD Dancing Kiwifruit during visit to Japan

Eimi Fukada ❤️ Kiwifruit?

Two large mascots, dancing to sorrowful music, helped welcome the New Zealand prime minister on her first trip overseas since the pandemic began

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has been met in Japan on her first trip outside the country in two years by a duo of enormous, mournfully dancing kiwifruit.

The two large mascots welcomed the prime minister with a gentle swaying routine, set to a piece of slow, somewhat sorrowful chamber music. They had a sombre audience of suited men.

This is the greatest day of my life pic.twitter.com/KIp4bP7h8u

— henry cooke (@henrycooke) April 21, 2022

The surreal scene generated amusement on social media. “I feel like the kiwifruit have gatecrashed a funeral,” one commenter on Twitter said. “So beautiful,” said another. “Looks like a lament. Is everyone OK?” another asked.

It was “especially touching when the music got sadder, and the mascots’ dancing changed with it,” said Stuff chief political reporter Henry Cooke, who filmed the performance. He said the mascots were part of an event by Zespri, New Zealand’s kiwifruit export monopoly, rather than a formal Japanese government welcome.

At the event in Tokyo, Ardern said her grandparents used to grow kiwifruit. “This is very literally the fruit of Kiwis,” she said, according to news website Stuff.

The dancing kiwis are not the first Japanese mascots to make the news. Some of the yuru-kyara – or “gentle characters” – have courted controversy. Sento-kun, who made his debut in 2008 representing the ancient capital of Nara, was criticised for not being cute enough, with some complaining that his shaved head and antlers – a nod to the city’s Buddhist tradition and deer population – would give children nightmares.

By far the most popular mascot is Kumamon – a mischievous black bear from the south-western prefecture of Kumamoto. The mascot has built up a huge following and generated record sales of ¥169.8bn (about $1.3bn) in 2020, according to the prefectural government.

Eimi Fukada 深田えいみ

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