Notices like the one above, which was posted on Twitter, have been popping up at major stations around Tokyo such as Shinjuku. It notifies commuters that coin lockers will be unusable from 19 to 25 April as a terrorism counter-measure.

How exactly does shutting down coin lockers prevent terrorism? The answer is quite simple… but a little confusing.

It’s no coincidence that the locker closures take place during the same time as US President Barack Obama’s visit to Japan. People were largely accepting of the move saying, “It’s an inconvenience but it can’t be helped.” However, many were confused as to why President Obama would be taking public trains during his stay.

Of course it wasn’t all good-natured tolerance of the rule, many complained about the closure saying, “why is the president’s visit more important than my convenience?” One commenter brought up a linguistic question: “If someone’s only targeting the president, is it really terrorism?”

I wonder if Barack Obama gets a tiny bit of satisfaction from being powerful enough to shut down coin lockers with his mere presence. It must be like how women all look away and pretend to do something whenever I come near, only better.

Source: Twitter 1, 2 via My Game News Flash (Japanese)