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“As a father of daughters, I think it must be quite painful for her father to recognise an unblessed marriage,” said Yoshinori Okabe, 63 and a dentist.

“We are nobodies and they are everything. We are the unblessed. We are the dissidents,” he said.

It may not have been part of the official mayoral entourage, but its dashboard was anointed with the holiest of government oils: a police placard giving it license to park where unblessed mortals cannot.

Psychoanalysis of politicians is a waste of time for those of us unblessed with telepathy in ordinary circumstances.

The unblessed amulets are sold in the temple's shop for about $1,700.