Fumio Kishida as Foreign Minister: “I just read the bureaucrats’ answers exactly word for word…” Ryo Miyoshi, former Foreign Ministry bureaucrat, talks about Fumio Kishida’s time as Foreign Minister.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s state visit to the U.S. has been the target of much ridicule and criticism

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was criticized in an interview with CNN before his state visit to the U.S., where he was reported in the JoongAng Ilbo and other media as saying that the country was at a “historic turning point” and “a normal nation capable of war. Furthermore, during his visit to the U.S., he has been the target of ridicule and criticism in several ways, including saying “China, our ally” at a joint Japan-U.S. press conference and posting a smiling two-shot with President Biden in the presidential car with a face.

At times like these, we hear voices both on the Internet and in real life saying, “I thought you were a more decent person before you became prime minister,” but what is really going on?

In reality, however, what is the actual situation? “Mr. Mogi (Toshimitsu Mogi) was criticized very unfavorably, but I have never heard anyone speak ill of Mr. Kishida when he was foreign minister.

I heard from a colleague from my days at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Mr. Mogi had the Mogi Manual, which required a cold hand towel and a hot hand towel, etc. When Mr. Mogi was around, the minister’s office was tense and everyone around him stood erect.

When Mr. Mogi was present, the minister’s office was tense, and everyone around him was standing erect. When he went on business trips, staff members of the minister’s office usually did not accompany him, but only Mr. Mogi was allowed to accompany him, and there were complaints about his use of chartered planes that cost tens of millions of yen.

Mr. Ryo Miyoshi, 38 years old and a former bureaucrat in the Foreign Ministry, is fluent in four languages and is currently studying Korean.

Americans look down on people who don’t have their own ideas and are petulant.

After graduating from high school, Mr. Miyoshi studied in the U.S. for six years from the age of 19. However, he is also an “oddball” who joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001 to study diplomacy in order to build equal relations with the U.S. and to change politics.

When I studied abroad in the U.S., I realized how much Japanese people are looked down upon and ridiculed. Americans look down on people who don’t have their own ideas and are petulant.

I had the impression that Japanese politics and diplomacy, especially in Asia, were looked down upon as foolish. Not only Americans, but people from other countries often said to me, “Japan is an American colony.

I was embarrassed by that, and my desire to change the relationship with the U.S. became stronger.

But when I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was sent not to the U.S., which I had hoped for, but to Russia. There, I worked as an interpreter and prepared for President Putin’s visit to Japan, the Japan-Russia foreign ministerial meeting, and the Japan-Russia summit meeting. On the other hand, I felt that Japan was being decimated by interests, and after seven years, I returned to Japan and found that the situation was much worse than what I had seen from the outside.

I realized that if LDP politics continued as it was, I would be in serious trouble, so I resigned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and knocked on the door of the Reiwa Shinsengumi.

When he resigned from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was told by many people that he should join the LDP, that they would introduce him to LDP members, and that he would have to wear a badge first, but he explains why he refused.

When I was studying in the U.S., I wondered why the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was making such anti-Japanese policies that were making Japan worse. I wondered if they were breaking it on purpose or if they had someone in the background, so I did some research and found out that they had deep ties with the Unification Church (at the time).

When I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I told them that in the future I would become a politician and address the LDP and the Unification Church in the Diet, but they called it a “conspiracy theory. They laughed at me. Even my family didn’t take me seriously.

It was strange, because it was a fact that LDP members attended various meetings of the Unification Church and sent congratulatory telegrams. But then there was the attack on former Prime Minister Abe in ’22, and it was ironic that the first time someone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said to me, ‘Mr. Miyoshi was right.

Mr. Kishida didn’t have a bad reputation because he would read the bureaucrats’ answers verbatim.”

By the way, what was your impression of Mr. Kishida as foreign minister when he was a bureaucrat?

He was not a bad reputation because he read the bureaucrats’ answers as they were written. Mr. Kishida read the bureaucratic answers verbatim, so he did not have a bad reputation.

But when I told him that I was a Reader, not a Leader as a leader, because I only read the bureaucratic answers exactly word for word, my senior said, “Our job is to manipulate the prime minister and ministers. It is the bureaucrats who respond to problems when they are told something they did not write. It is not easy to kill your feelings and what you want to say and read them word for word. I remember him saying, ‘That is an amazing ability.

When I ask my friends at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again about their impressions of Mr. Kishida’s time as minister, many of them say, ‘I don’t remember anything,’ or ‘I don’t have any impression of him. ‘”

Nevertheless, he adds that he has the impression that he is speaking his own words now that he has become prime minister.

Since becoming prime minister, he has been asked questions about various areas, such as the Noto Peninsula earthquake and the slush fund issue. Recently, when Reiwa Representative Yamamoto asked a question in the Diet, he got the intention about the Noto Peninsula earthquake and spoke in his own words.

At least Prime Minister Kishida’s own words are better than when he just read bureaucratic answers.

However, during the joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the Northern Territories issue, the topic was the UN Charter, which Mr. Kishida was unable to answer. Unlike the answers he could prepare in advance, what Lavrov told him must have been unexpected.”

I think he has the ability to listen. However…”

So, what do you think of Prime Minister Kishida’s “ability to listen”?

I think he has the ability to listen. However…” “I think he has the ability to listen. I think he has the ability to listen, but not to the general public.

When he was foreign minister, he listened to the foreign affairs bureaucrats, and after becoming prime minister, I think he listens to the Keidanren, religious organizations, and large corporations that back him and provide him with organizational votes and donations.

He also explains that there is a misunderstanding about the “overseas spending,” which is often criticized on the Internet.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs decides what kind of overseas assistance we provide, but we don’t give it away for free; it’s basically a loan.

The accountant in my office was originally an accountant for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and basically, even in the financial accounting, what kind of projects they have done is disclosed, and many of them are infrastructure-related.

We disperse money overseas, and with that money, we build and maintain infrastructure overseas, and large Japanese companies receive the orders for those jobs. The big corporations donate money to the LDP, don’t they?

But I looked it up once, and when they say, for example, we are going to do rice paddies, and we are going to provide or buy various machines, they don’t disclose where these machines are.”

I also asked Mr. Suga Yoshihide to run for the Kanagawa 2nd Constituency, the same constituency as his.

In fact, he said that in addition to the call to join the LDP, he had also received invitations from other major parties, but why did he turn them all down and choose Reiwa’s newly elected party?

When I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was being discussed, and I was always against the TPP. But everyone at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thought that joining the TPP was in Japan’s national interest.

I wondered why the bureaucrats were promoting the TPP when there were many books within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that pointed out the negative aspects of the TPP, including its problems.

Then I heard Representative Yamamoto speaking alone in Shinjuku against the TPP, and I thought, ‘He’s a real person, studying so much. I chose Reiwa Shinsengumi, who has neither religion nor a lot of money in his back pocket.

Moreover, I asked him to run for the same Kanagawa Ward 2 seat as Mr. Suga Yoshihide. Mr. Kan is 75 years old and I am 38. I think there is a clear axis of opposition between a person with various interests and a newcomer who has no signboard bag.

Running for the Kanagawa 2nd Constituency will be a tough road. When I told him this, he expressed his feeling and enthusiasm as follows.

I have had many people tell me they support me because I am young and do my best.

I like karate, and some of my karate students who used to be members of Mr. Kan’s supporters’ association say, ‘I don’t support (Mr. Kan) anymore. I will support you.

Of course, there are some people who have to support the LDP because of their company, but when I go door to door, I find that only about one out of every 100 people who support the LDP are supporting the LDP.

But many people just don’t go to elections. If everyone were interested in elections, and if one out of every four people who didn’t go to the last election went, the results would change. Anyway, I want to increase the turnout.”