The Tokyo Bureau of Sewerage spent a huge amount of taxpayers’ money re-ordering official badges after accidentally ordering badges that didn’t comply with its design manual:

The new uniforms were ordered during the spring, after the design got a go-ahead from managers. However, it was noticed later that the uniforms’ silicone badges, which bear the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s gingko leaf crest and office name, also contained a small wavy blue line, designed to represent cleaning water. This was deemed a violation of the bureau’s basic design manual, and new badges were subsequently ordered at a total cost of 34 million yen.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara blasted the bureau’s “moronic perfectionism,” saying that the two managers who approved the design in the first place had been reprimanded.

Moronic indeed.

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