Changes in Suga’s “Prime Ministerial Capacity” Revealed by Lining Up His Speeches

His speech at the inaugural press conference wasn’t bad, but ……

On the 3rd of this month, Prime Minister Kan announced his intention not to run for the next LDP presidential election. The sudden announcement was met with widespread surprise.

“I thought in December that he was not a leader for emergencies. You can see that in his speech.”

Ayako Sato, a leading expert in performance psychology who has coached a cumulative total of 40,000 business leaders, executives, and parliamentarians, including former prime ministers, on their speeches, said, “I think he’s a good leader.

But her speech at Kan’s inaugural press conference on September 16, 2020, was “good,” she says. “There were many critics who said it was just a bunch of words and didn’t convey a big vision.

“I think that’s because of the preconceptions I had when I was Chief Cabinet Secretary. At that time, Prime Minister Kan’s voice was louder than when he was Chief Cabinet Secretary, and he stared at the person asking the question with eyes so firmly open that lines appeared in the hollows above his eyes. He also touched on policies such as the establishment of a new digital agency and insurance coverage for fertility treatments. It wasn’t a bad speech by any means.” (Ayako Sato, same as below)

One thing that bothered me was that the word “we” was not mentioned once.

In this press conference, Kan used “I” as the subject three times, including “I am” and “I am. Not once did he use the word “we”. Former Presidents Obama and Biden, for example, do not use the word “I”. For example, former presidents Obama and Biden don’t use the word “I,” but use “we” and “our” a lot and call on the people to say, “Let’s build this kind of country together. In this respect, Prime Minister Kan lacks the ability to involve his listeners. Although it was lacking in that sense, I think it was an okay speech.

December 2020: Just before the declaration of a state of emergency. Disappointing after only three months in office. No wonder his approval rating dropped.

However.

“After that, his speeches started to deteriorate like a downhill slide.

Mr. Sato took the situation particularly seriously around the end of December, just before the second state of emergency was declared in Tokyo and three prefectures on January 7, 2021. At that time, the GoTo Travel and GoTo Eat projects continued, and the number of infected people increased rapidly, prompting calls from various regions to declare a state of emergency.

“At that time, German Chancellor Merkel waved her right hand in the air and said, ‘Please avoid human contact,’ and ‘Don’t let this be the last Christmas you see your grandparents.

“It was a speech that touched people around the world, a speech of the soul.

Prime Minister Ardern of New Zealand said, “Be strong. Prime Minister Ardern of New Zealand said, ‘Be strong, and be kind. He appealed to the people to be strong for themselves, but kind to those around them, and asked for their understanding by making a strong emotional appeal.

Prime Minister Kan, on the other hand, simply spoke without hesitation. The approval rating of the Cabinet, which was nearly 70% when he took office, has continued to decline, and in late December, the number of “do not support” votes exceeded the number of “support” votes for the first time.

“In emergencies, we need a strong tone of command that clarifies responsibility and moves things forward. And appeal to the emotions. In addition, you have to involve your listeners by using the tone of voice that former Prime Minister Abe used to use, ‘…… let’s do it,’ and the word ‘we’ like Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden. Prime Minister Kan was not able to do any of these. It’s no wonder his approval rating is going down.”

In March 2021, I became a “broken record. No “vision,” “strategy,” or “plan” in sight…

By the time March rolled around, the number of stampeded answers increased. In the case of the Olympics, Kan simply said that the Olympics would be held in a safe and secure environment, but did not offer any concrete measures.

“The leader of a contingency plan must first have a vision, then a strategy. A contingency leader must first set forth a vision, then a strategy, and then a plan for when the plan will be implemented. If the vision is to have a safe and secure Olympics, then the strategy for realizing the vision, such as what to do about vaccines and staff, and the schedule for realizing the strategy should be explained. Even when writing a proposal, this is the least you should do.”

That’s not all a leader needs to do, says Sato.

“In an emergency, you need to have a vision and a technique.

You need to have the technique of speech to make people understand. President Biden gave a great speech in his first month in office. In his first month in office, President Biden gave a wonderful speech in which he spoke of high ideals such as “opportunity,” “security,” “liberty,” “dignity,” “respect,” “honor,” and “truth. A leader needs to use words that convey such ideals, but I never heard such words from Kan.

When he first took office, he talked about his vision, but he gradually stopped saying what he wanted to do. He may have lost his vision.

Loss of vision as a prime minister of a country. There is nothing scarier than this. Maybe he had a vision, but he just didn’t say it.

“If you don’t express it, it’s as good as nothing.

After all, he was not a contingency leader.

I wonder who will be the next leader. “Sato says the next step is to find out who has the right “vision,” “strategy” and “plan.

Hopefully, he or she will be chosen based on these factors and not on the power of factions.

After graduating from the Graduate School of Performance Studies at New York University in 1980, Ayako Sato worked as a professor at the Nihon University College of Art before becoming a professor at Hollywood Graduate University. She is the president of the Performance Education Association. She is the president of the Association for Performance Education and the president of the International Performance Institute.

He has written many books, including “33 Ways to Ignite Motivation in Your Subordinates as Top Leaders Do” (Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.), “Nursing Care and the Aged are Not Scary” (Gakken Medical Shujunsha, Inc.), “Introduction to Performance Studies for Doctors, New Edition” (Nikkei BP Marketing, Inc.), and “How to Show Yourself” to Attract People as Learned from Top Leaders (Discover). (Discover) and many other books.