No one I know is happy about the controversy surrounding Ms. Ogata’s use of a lozenge in the city council chambers and her colleagues going ballistic in reaction to that usage. The whole flap might not be such a bad thing for Ryukakusan, however, the manufacturer of Ms. Ogata’s lozenge of choice. It became a matter of public record that Ms. Ogata had a Ryukakusan lozenge in her mouth – not a generic one – because she answered with the brand name when the chair person asked about what she had in her mouth. In response, Ryukakusan posted various videos on their Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/ryukakusan_pr) that advertise products they are promoting as suitable for public speaking.
This, in turn, has been picked up by Mainichi Newspaper (Japanese version):
https://mainichi.jp/articles/20181010/k00/00m/040/016000c
The article on the connections between current events and Ryukakusan’s marketing indicates that the commercial had been made before the conflict in Kumamoto occurred but that they reposted it because it seemed to fit the occasion quite well.
– Kirk