Names & Photos of 5 LDP Top Officials Who “Slept Soundly” During Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Plenary Session of the House of Representatives

From right to left: Tsuyoshi Takagi (67), chairman of the National Diet Committee; Hiroshi Moriyama (78), chairman of the General Affairs Committee; Kōichi Hagiuda (60), chairman of the Policy Research Council; Yuko Obuchi (49), chairman of the Election Committee; and Hiroshi Kajiyama (68), acting secretary general. The five LDP leaders closed their eyes in unison, looking very mysterious.

 

One would have thought that they were deep in contemplation, wondering if there was any good idea to save the government, which is not only flying low but also in a “Dutch roll,” but in fact is not. But they were wrong. They kept their eyes closed for about 15 minutes. The leader of the group was under heavy fire right in front of them. 

The photo was taken at a plenary session of the House of Representatives on the afternoon of October 24. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (66) was in the middle of answering a question from Kenta Izumi (49), representative of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, regarding the content of his policy speech the previous day.

“I doubt the nerve of Prime Minister Kishida, the head of the party, to doze off during his answer. During the tenure of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it was rare to see a senior LDP official sleeping during a prime minister’s answer. This is symbolic of Prime Minister Kishida’s lack of grip on the party and the loosening of the atmosphere.”

Prime Minister Kishida’s disgraceful nickname of “tax hike glasses” has become firmly established. The Cabinet’s approval rating in a joint Sankei Shimbun and FNN poll released on November 13 fell to 27%, the lowest level since the inauguration, due in part to the revelation of scandals and resignations of three political officials in quick succession. Even so, political journalist Koichi Kakutani says there is no sense of tension between the prime minister and party officials.

“Although the approval rating is still low, there is no sign of a ‘post-Kishida’ in the party,” said Koichi Kakutani, a political journalist. “Looking at the opposition parties, the Rikken party is talking out of focus about a “regime change in five years,” and the Ishin party has self-destructed with its Osaka Expo fiasco, so a major defeat for the Liberal Democratic Party in the election is unlikely. Even if they should lose, the risk of collapse is low because they have the stomach to take on the National Democratic Party of Japan. They have no sense of crisis.”

 

Meanwhile, the “ability to listen,” which he has advocated since he first took office, has begun to fade. LDP Upper House Representative Masashi Nishida, 65, confides that there have been times when he has turned a deaf ear to the advice of his aides.

“Two days before his policy speech, he and Seiji Kihara, 53, the prime minister’s closest aide and acting secretary general, visited Prime Minister Kishida and said, “If you are going to propose a tax cut, it should be on consumption tax, not income tax.” I advised him that he should include this in his speech. The prime minister shook his head in agreement, but I was surprised to see that the tax cuts were not reflected in the speech at all.”

When we questioned the five executives about their dozing off, Moriyama’s office responded, “We confirmed with the individual that he was listening to what was being said.” However, how is it possible for a person to keep his eyes closed for 15 minutes when he is “listening carefully?” The remaining four officials did not respond by the deadline.

The prime minister’s “ability to listen,” one of his few appealing points, is waning, and the party is losing its grip. Recovering his approval rating is a pipe dream.

From the December 1, 2023 issue of FRIDAY