Japan Digest
Japan Digest · 2024/05/26
1. PM Kishida Delivered A Speech At OECD To Promote Generative AI’s Framework As anticipated in the last digest, PM Kishida visited Paris during the Golden Week in Japan and delivered a keynote speech on May 2 at the opening ceremony of this year’s OECD Board of Directors meeting. He introduced Japan’s idea of an international AI framework “Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group” that stemmed from the Hiroshima AI Process that the G7 Hiroshima Summit agreed to pursue last year. The...
Japan Digest · 2024/05/26
1. PM Kishida’s Low Approval Rating Remained Unchanged Despite His State Visit To The U.S. According to Yomiuri’s monthly survey, which was conducted on April 19 through 24, the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating remained unchanged from the previous month at 25%, while its disapproval rating went up by four points to 66%. The ruling LDP’s approval rating slightly went up by 1 point to 24%, while CDPJ, the largest opposition party’s approval rating went down to 5% from 8%. Although 55%...
Japan Digest · 2024/05/26
1. PM Kishida’s Approval Rating Continuing To Tumble According to NHK’s monthly survey, which was conducted on April 5 through 7, the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating declined by two points to 23% from the previous month, while its disapproval rating went up by one point to 58%. The ruling LDP’s approval rating continuously went down to 28.4% from 28.6% of the previous month. CDPJ, the largest opposition party’s approval rating also went down to 6.5% from 6.8%. Although the LDP...
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...