<figure id="attachment_268974" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-268974" style="width: 2964px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0b6d7e0c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/10/aflo_200755064.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-268974" class="wp-caption-text">Prime Minister Kishida has forced through a &#8220;foil appointment of a nepotistic, hereditary heir&#8221; amid a plunge in cabinet approval ratings. Why was it &#8220;now or never&#8221; and how did his secretary Shoutarou &#8220;work&#8221;&#8230; Photo: AP/Afro</figcaption></figure>
<p> Why? Why now? Why now? Both the ruling and opposition parties are in a mood of resignation over the appointment of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida&#8217;s eldest son, Shotaro, as &#8220;secretary to the prime minister.</p>
<p> The &#8220;ability to listen,&#8221; which had been the prime minister&#8217;s main selling point, failed to hear his opposition to the national funeral. The prime minister&#8217;s &#8220;listening skills&#8221; may already be dysfunctional, according to a former cabinet member.</p>
<p><strong> The selection of his eldest son, Shotaro, as secretary general is a sign that Prime Minister Kishida, who was supposed to be calm and collected, has begun to lose control. The timing of this appointment is inappropriate, no matter how you look at it. It is too bad timing at any cost. This is not the time to be making a &#8220;foil appointment&#8221; for his son at this time of national crisis. Even a layman can see that there will be a backlash. At the very least, if Mr. Aso had been consulted, he would have advised him to give it some time.</strong></p>
<p> Four days later, however, news broke that Masatoyo Aso, the eldest son of Vice President Taro Aso, had been chosen as the next president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, Japan. This was the second generation of JCJ presidents to hold the post. This has further raised the question of whether &#8220;Japan is a country of nepotism and hereditary succession.</p>
<h2> The Prime Minister&#8217;s remaining time as prime minister is now in sight.</h2>
<p> The Cabinet&#8217;s approval rating continues to decline. This is a time when he must come up with sophisticated policies to curb high prices and stabilize the economy. There is also the threat of North Korean missiles and the Unification Church issue. The question of &#8220;why now?&#8221; is being raised not only by the public but also by those within the LDP. But on the other hand.</p>
<p><strong> The reason is clear. With his approval rating declining and his &#8220;remaining time as prime minister&#8221; in sight, he must feel compelled to give the title of &#8220;secretary to the prime minister&#8221; to his eldest son as soon as possible in order to prepare for the succession of his position. For Prime Minister Kishida, it is now or never. Six months from now will be too late.</strong></p>
<p> With Shoutaro Kishida&#8217;s appointment as secretary to the prime minister, there are now seven secretaries to the prime minister, including Takashi Shimada, who has been in the post since the start of the administration. The increase in the number of secretaries was not so much to enhance policy as <strong>&#8220;to keep the family close</strong> for comfort,&#8221; sighed a former cabinet member. <strong>Kishida is in a bad way,&#8221;</strong> he said.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<h2> Shoutarou&#8217;s &#8220;Political Debut</h2>
<p> Six months earlier, in April of this year, Shoutarou&#8217;s &#8220;secretary&#8221; had made his real political debut. At the &#8220;Meeting with Fumio Kishida to Discuss National Politics,&#8221; which was attended by 450 people, including top political, government, and business leaders, Shoutarou addressed the gathering as &#8220;the prime minister&#8217;s personal representative.</p>
<p><strong> He said, &#8220;I am very sorry that I am unable to address you all today because the prime minister is on official business. As the representative of the Prime Minister, I will report on domestic and foreign affairs, which the Prime Minister has requested me to do without fail. Thank you very much for your kind attention.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p> At his first breakfast meeting since becoming prime minister, 31-year-old Shoutarou Kishida was so nervous that his palms were drenched in sweat.</p>
<p><strong> He ended his 10-minute speech with a joke that made the audience chuckle. His sense of speech was probably better than his father&#8217;s. As his successor, he passed the test. As his successor, I give him a passing grade. Hiroshima&#8217;s first ward is now safe and sound,&#8221; said an executive of a major energy company.</strong></p>
<p> It is said that Prime Minister Kishida is the only politician who can fill the Prominence Room at the ANA Intercontinental Hotel, one of the &#8220;big box&#8221; banquet halls in Tokyo, to capacity. Shoutarou also told the packed room, &#8220;The prime minister is a very good man.</p>
<p><strong> The prime minister has said that he has participated in a number of round-table discussions, listening to valuable discussions and making use of them in his policies. We are determined to take all possible measures to cope with high prices and other problems.</strong></p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> Reporting on his father&#8217;s work, he emphasized that his &#8220;ability to listen&#8221; is being demonstrated without regret. In the area of diplomacy, he said.</p>
<p><strong> I will actively develop face-to-face diplomacy with India, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the European Union,&#8221; he said. In addition, he and U.S. Ambassador Emmanuelle visited Hiroshima. This was an exceptional response.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p> He appealed to the current situation, in which he is placing emphasis on Asia and diplomacy with Europe and the U.S. is closer than ever, as &#8220;exceptional,&#8221; and said that he is placing even greater emphasis on the Japan-U.S. alliance than the Abe administration has. He concluded by talking about his &#8220;job.</p>
<p><strong> I am currently living in the official residence. This is the first time since Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda that I have lived in the official residence. I myself moved into the official residence and am, so to speak, a &#8216;live-in&#8217; employee of the prime minister. My mother is protecting her hometown of Hiroshima, so we are having trouble finding food, and since catering is not an option, I have been running as fast as I can to buy convenience store lunches and a little sake, as ordered by the Prime Minister.</strong></p>
<p> So, I am running as fast as I can to buy convenience store box lunches, a little sake, etc., as ordered by the prime minister. Have you already forgotten the firestorm that once erupted, &#8220;Kishida&#8217;s wife stands up and serves you?</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" She goes to work before 7:00 a.m., makes tea..."></div>
<h2>Dedication&#8221; Expected of First Son</h2>
<p> At that time, Shoutarou was &#8220;serving&#8221; the prime minister with &#8220;miscellaneous duties,&#8221; such as &#8220;shopping at convenience stores. He was then caught in a tumultuous and turbulent period with the Upper House election, the shooting of former Prime Minister Abe, and the former Unification Association issue. When the prime minister contracted corona during his summer vacation, Shoutarou was a close contact but escaped infection. He wore a personal corona mask and carried porridge to Prime Minister Kishida, who was suffering from a sore throat and could not drink water, and gave him medicine and devoted nursing care.</p>
<p> The prime minister said he expects Shoutarou&#8217;s secretary to &#8220;play the role of quickly discarding and reporting information coming from ministries and agencies 24 hours a day, as well as disseminating information via social networking services.</p>
<p> He now arrives at the prime minister&#8217;s office before 7:00 a.m., earlier than anyone else, he said. He makes tea for the senior secretaries, asks for their advice, and listens to the progress of policy, while working with Takayoshi Yamamoto, the secretary who moved to Kishida&#8217;s office, to coordinate the &#8220;prime minister&#8217;s schedule&#8221; minute by minute. Lunch is at the PM residence cafeteria. Although he has said that the food is &#8220;not very good,&#8221; he eats at the Prime Minister&#8217;s Office cafeteria almost every day.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> As the &#8220;person in charge of SNS,&#8221; which is expected by the prime minister, he picks up posts &#8220;critical of the Kishida administration&#8221; from Twitter and conveys them to the prime minister verbatim as &#8220;voices from the outside. When Prime Minister Kishida commented on his impression that &#8220;all the voices are saying that the LDP&#8217;s response to the Unification Association is lukewarm,&#8221; Secretary Shoutarou replied in a few words, &#8220;Yes&#8230;. It seems that he is still reluctant to give his opinion to his father, the prime minister.</p>
<p> His only advice is that he heard the results of the media&#8217;s survey of the administration&#8217;s approval rating before it was posted on the Internet. Secretary Shoutarou is aware of the &#8220;crisis in the administration. He travels back and forth to the prime minister&#8217;s office and makes an effort to attend bureaucratic lectures when they are held, but the reality is that he is busy with visitors and meetings, and is also busy responding to the 70 or so phone calls he receives each day requesting a meeting with the prime minister. He is also dealing with cancellations of meetings due to North Korean missiles.</p>
<div data-friday-ad-slot="AD_inArticle"></div>
<p> So far, the only &#8220;accomplishments&#8221; that can be heard from him as secretary to the prime minister are his familial devotion and miscellaneous duties, but as early as now, rumors about his relationships with women keep coming up, and it is whispered that he has &#8220;more flowers than his father. We hope that he will be able to take advantage of the trust that comes only from family members and play a role not only in taking care of personal affairs but also in proposing better policies and even &#8220;admonishing the prime minister if he makes a mistake.</p>


 Shutaro Iwashiro

 AP/Afro

 Why? Why now? Why now? Both the ruling and opposition parties are in a mood of resignation over the appointment of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's eldest son, Shotaro, as "secretary to the prime minister. The "ability to listen," which had been the prime minister's main selling point, failed to hear his opposition to the national funeral. The prime minister's "listening skills" are no longer dysfunctional.

Arriving at work at 7:00 a.m. and serving tea… What Prime Minister Kishida’s “secretary to the eldest son” is doing now

Access Ranking