Japan’s state-run pension scheme, which is compulsory for citizens aged 20 to 59 – needed someone to front its new “get tough” advertising campaign intended to convince the millions of malingerers to start paying. Enter popular “tough girl” actress Makiko Esumi. A TV and poster campaign worth about $5 million based around Ms Esumi warning Japanese to “pay up or cry later” was going well until last week, when someone discovered that Ms Esumi hasn’t been paying her contributions, either. 

As a spokesman for the Social Insurance Agency put it: “We’re very disappointed.”