三角関数 means trigonometric function, e.g., sin() cos() tan() cot(), etc. A member of the House of Representatives of Japan mentioned it on his Twitter account on May 17.

The member’s name is 藤巻健太 (Fujimaki Kenta), and his tweet says,

「三角関数よりも金融経済を学ぶべきではないか」

金融教育をテーマに、財務金融委員会で議論させて頂きました。

meaning,

“Isn’t it better that we learn finance and economy rather than trigonometric functions?”

We discussed about the topic of financial education on the Commitee of Finance.

Over the last couple of days, there has been quite heated discussion on this issue on Twitter in Japan. Some are seriously addressing the topic and pointing out the importance of basic math knowledge, while others mock or create memes about it, causing the tag to trend on Twitter in Japan.