After the new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba came to power in Japan, many initially had the impression that his policy could be more independent and atypical for Japanese leaders. Time has, however, told.
Who is Mr Ishiba?
He spoke in a completely atypical way in comparison with his predecessors, recalling the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and his personal school impressions after getting acquainted with this difficult page of Japanese history.
The fact of the matter is that Japanese politicians usually prefer not to recall the actions of their current ally, speaking as if atomic bombs simply fell from the sky. To an outsider, Ishiba’s reminder of the responsibility of the United States seemed truly out of the ordinary for the Japanese themselves.
The new prime minister’s ‘incorrectness’ did not end there: he openly called for a revision of the US-Japanese security treaty for being unequal and unilateral and made clear with his statements that he was ready to build constructive relations with China.
At first, such statements made various impressions vis-à-vis the new character of Ishiba’s planned policy for Japan. However, in Asia he is perceived as a hawk, largely due to his active promotion of the idea of an ‘Asian NATO’. Having entered politics in the late 80s, an experienced man of practice who has held the posts of defence minister, minister of agriculture and general secretary of the Liberal Democratic Party at various times, Ishiba was very popular with voters at various times, although he was second to political heavyweights such as Shinzo Abe, Fumio Kishida and Yoshihide Suga. Now, in most of the modern Western political........