Japan Digest
Japan Digest · 2024/03/31
1. PM Kishida’s Plan To Gain Back Political Capital Hasn’t Born Fruit Yet Yomiuri’s monthly survey, which was conducted on March 22 through 24, the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating slightly increased by one point to 25% from the previous month, while its disapproval rating also slightly went up by one point to 62%. The ruling LDP’s approval rating continuously went down to 23%, which is the lowest since the party returned to power in 2012. CDPJ, the largest opposition party’s...
Japan Digest · 2024/03/31
1. 13th Anniversary Of The Eastern Japan Great Earthquake At 2:46 pm on Monday the 11th of March, Japan mourned the 13th anniversary of the Eastern Japan Great Earthquake, which caused tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s accident on March 11, 2011. According to the National Police Agency and Reconstruction Agency, the number of deaths including missing persons is 22,222, while 29,328 people are still evacuated from their hometowns due to the radioactive contamination....
Japan Digest · 2024/03/10
1. PM Kishida Attended Deliberative Council On Political Ethics On February 29, PM Kishida appeared before the Lower House Deliberative Council on Political Ethics. It is the very first time for a sitting prime minister to attend the council on political ethics in the Japanese political history. Although the 50+ people out of the LDP Diet members that the opposition partied demanded to appear on the council to clarify their off-the-book fund issues do not include Kishida, he took initiative to...
Japan Digest · 2024/03/10
1. PM Kishida’s Tenure Ranked Top 10 Prime Minister Kishida's tenure reached 864 days on February 14, placing him alongside former Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki as the 10th longest-serving prime minister among the 35 prime ministers since the end of World War II. According to NHK’s monthly survey, which was conducted from February 10 through 12, the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating went down by 1 point to 25%, while its disapproval rating went up by 2 points to 58%. LDP’s approval rating...
Japan Digest · 2024/02/11
1. China Is Building Up Military Presence Around Taiwan Yomiuri reported on Sunday and Monday this week on the front page about Chinese Military’s build-up around Taiwan. Earlier back in 2020, China deployed at least three ships of a Chinese version of Aegis destroyers on the line of its unilaterally declared Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, and since then, the destroyers have been permanently stationed in the area. This ADIZ includes the Senkaku Archipelagos...
Japan Digest · 2024/02/11
1. Noto Peninsula Earthquake Update 18 days have passed since the great earthquake of Seismic Intensity 7 that occurred at 4:10 pm on the New Year Day in Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture, yet the number of casualty, evacuees and damaged houses are growing day by day. As of Thursday, 232 people were confirmed dead, 15,130 evacuees are living in shelters and 28,925 houses are broken. Thousands of local school children are now being moved to safe areas by bus to be assigned to schools that...
Japan Digest · 2024/02/11
1. Abe Faction’s Financial Scandal Making PM Kishida’s Approval Rating Fall In The Alarming Zone According NHK’s monthly survey for the month of December, PM Kishida’s approval rating went further down to 23% from 29% last month, while his disapproval rating went up by 6 points to 58%. The Abe Faction’s financial scandal, namely the intentional elimination from the booking of the incomes and their sources that were generated through various political contribution parties was revealed...
Japan Digest · 2023/12/17
1. G7 Announced First International Guideline Of AI Regulation G7 Summit meeting was hosted by PM Kishida on December 6 online, and it endorsed the international guidelines for all the AI related stakeholders that the G7 Digital and Technology Ministers had agreed on earlier on December 1. Following are the seven key points of the guideline: l Enhance AI’s usability knowing the risk of AI such as divergence of fake information l Promote responsible use of AI l Evaluate the risk of AI and...
Japan Digest · 2023/12/03
1. Kishida’s Approval Rate Down To 24% Yomiuri’s monthly survey, which was conducted from November 17 through 19 revealed that the approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet went down by 10 points to 24% from the previous month. It is the lowest ever since PM Kishida formed his cabinet in October 2021. Its disapproval rating went up by 13 points to 62%. In just two months after the reshuffle of the cabinet, two new vice political ministers and one new parliamentary secretary resigned due to...
Japan Digest · 2023/12/03
1. Japan To Strengthen Security Cooperation With Philippine PM Kishida is visiting Philippine today and meeting with President Marcos. The main topic of the summit meeting is how to strengthen the mutual security cooperation in the face of escalating Chinese military and coast guard presence in the South China Sea and in the other regional sea. The two leaders are expected to agree that the mutual administrations will enter negotiation to conclude Official Security Agreement (OSA) and...