This full message seems readable only on facebook, so I'm copying to paste it to here.
Message from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:
I attended the press conference to announce the pairings for the “Shogi Denou-sen”—a battle of professional shogi players vs. computers.
I suppose some of my readers here may have watched the live Internet relay, but when I did the furigoma (a toss of five pawns to decide who plays black and white), surprisingly all five pawns landed “fu” side up. Therefore, in the first match-up, the shogi professional will be black, the side that moves first. Having emotions is one of the strengths humans enjoy, and I really wish the best of luck for the shogi professionals not to lose to the computers.
This year, Mt.¬¬¬ Fuji was registered on the World Heritage List and washoku—Japanese cuisine—was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. I would like to convey shogi to the world as one type of “Cool Japan.”
(Originally posted at 18:56, Tuesday, December 10, 2013 in Japanese)
If you are a facebook user, you can see the photo with the abovementioned message at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=582600838478782&set=a.297429136995955.68423.119541591451378&type=1&theater
In addition, I'm adding the video to this entry.
Abe did furigoma there at that time. Kyodo News uploaded the video of the scene for you to watch.
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