Nah, think of it more as a seat belt - he was so pissed he kept falling off!
This was in one of the souvenir shops on the slope below Kumamoto Castle, had a nice taster flight of shochu at the bar behind the bear 
His fundraising skills as mentioned in the John Oliver piece are really important to the prefecture, as they continue to rebuild the castle and other parts damaged in the 2016 earthquake. I was oddly disappointed to have missed the latest quake, it happened a day or so after I left there - 3rd January I think - would have been an experience for sure, luckily this time it was much smaller and only minor damage
was reported.
