Japanese Prime Minister Appears as Mario to Hype 2020 Tokyo Olympics

For the past several Olympics, it’s become commonplace for the closing ceremonies to feature representatives from the next scheduled games taking an active role as they’re handed the reigns of Olympic host. Usually this entails a video package or cultural demonstration to display how their country was preparing for the games.

With Tokyo preparing to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, it made sense for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to be involved in the Rio ceremony. However, no one was expecting full Super Mario cosplay from the politician.

https://twitter.com/krislane/status/767561893229637632

The Tokyo games initially presented a video displaying Japanese athletes and cultural icons in Tokyo. As seen above, the video takes a turn when Abe appears and realizes he’s going to be “late” in arriving to Rio.

The PM then morphs into a computer generated Mario who enters one of his trademark transportation pipes from the classic Nintendo game. Back in the actual stadium, Abe himself emerged from a physical version of the pipe dressed in a full Mario costume before revealing himself.

Best entrance for a Prime Minister ever. Shinzo Abe just climbed out a drain pipe dressed as Mario!!! #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/1BfzV7q4Cc

— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) August 22, 2016

Shinzo Abe turned into Mario and popped up in Rio via a plumbing pipe. With the help of Doraemon. Japan is already winning #Olympics 😍

— Jan Villalon (@jan_villalon) August 22, 2016

Japanese Prime Minsiter Shinzo Abe just arrived at the Rio stadium dressed as Mario. The 2020 Tokyo Games are already better than Rio.

— Mark Humphries (@markhumphries) August 22, 2016

The stunt was met with wide acclaim from Twitter. Those wondering if Abe will make an encore as the famous Nintendo plumber, perhaps with brother Luigi by his side, need to wait until the Tokyo Olympics kick off in July of 2020