Got a note from Graham Webster who runs a blog called Transpacific Triangle alerting us to the fact that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe just may be trying to borrow a page out of the book of his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.

When Irish rock star Bono recently presented Abe with a pair of a pair of red Giorgio Armani sunglasses (“Red”-branded product part of whose profits are donated to AIDS programs), Japan’s leader slipped them on and posed of the cameras.

No doubt more than one person in the room held their breath in anticipation of a Koizumi-esque air guitar performance, but none was forthcoming.

According to a Reuters report on the meeting, Bono suggested that the world might have something to learn from Japan in terms of international aid and assistance.

“The world doesn’t really understand that Japan in the ’90s led the world not just as a percentage contribution to the world’s poor but as the volume contribution,” he told reporters at the prime minister’s office.

“The world doesn’t understand that Japan has had a lot of success in its aid and assistance in Southeast Asia in particular, and that there’s a lot we can learn from Japan in applying this to the rest of the developing world.”