Japan's first major blood change, Fumio Kishida may face a new round of governing crisis?
In November this year, according to Japan's "Asahi Shimbun", the popular approval rating of Japan's current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has repeatedly hit new lows, and only 12% of respondents hope that Fumio Kishida will remain in power.
At the same time, more than half of the respondents asked Fumio Kishida to be immediately, and according to the pattern of Japan's re-election over the years, the prime minister's approval rating has fallen to 25%, and his ruling career is nearing the end.
Fumio Kishida also set a record for the lowest approval rating in history since Japan's Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in 2012.
In fact, as early as September this year, Japan** sounded the alarm bell, and Fumio Kishida originally hoped to build the image of a reformer through cabinet reshuffle, so as to increase public support.
But what he didn't expect was that this painless reform not only failed to win him the support of the people, but also caused his status in Japanese political circles to decline rapidly.
To put it bluntly, Fumio Kishida's series of China policies after taking office can actually be summed up in one sentence: the current prime minister wants to use the "anti-China card" to stir up internal nationalist sentiments and consolidate his political position.
But what he never expected was that it was this move that made him fall into the abyss from which he could never recover.
You know, the current situation in Japan is already very bad, the economy is slow, prices are high, and in September this year, Japan once again ushered in a new round of ** tide.
The yen has already depreciated by 7% against the dollar, which means that the domestic economic situation is a mess. The continuous rise in prices has also increased the pressure on the lives of ordinary people in Japan.
The economic difficulties are constantly reminding Kishida that the focus should be on economic construction.
However, Kishida ** obviously did not realize this problem, and in the case of Japan's domestic economic downturn, he still continued to expand military finance, and only the United States took the lead and engaged in arms exports.
This act not only made life more difficult for ordinary people in Japan, but also plunged the world into turmoil.
In particular, on August 24 this year, Japan** openly discharged nuclear sewage into the waters of Fukushima despite the opposition of the international community and the Japanese people, and Japan's domestic economy was also seriously affected.
Previously, Japan's first proposed to vigorously support Japan's agricultural, forestry and aquatic products and food exports, and it is estimated that Japan's agricultural, forestry and aquatic products and food exports will reach 5 trillion yuan around 2030.
However, after Japan's nuclear sewage was officially discharged into the sea, Japan's total amount of agricultural, forestry, fishery and food products decreased by 79% and counting.
It should be stated that China can still produce its own seafood or import it from other countries without Japanese seafood, but once Japan loses the Chinese market, then the first thing to collapse is Japan's domestic economy.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in August, China, Japan's largest exporter of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, accounting for 25% of Japan's total exports of agricultural, forestry and fishery productsAs much as 2%.This is enough to prove the importance of the Chinese market to the Japanese economy, and after Japan's nuclear sewage was discharged into the sea, China announced a complete suspension of the import of Japanese aquatic products, which will undoubtedly seriously affect the Japanese economy.
This was originally China's normal defense method after dealing with Japan's discharge of nuclear wastewater, but it caused dissatisfaction among Japan, and Japan repeatedly expressed in public that it was "unacceptable" decision.
The Financial Times published an article on November 15 saying that Japan's economy contracted much more than expected in the third quarter, and the domestic economy is now in a rather embarrassing state.The continued economic downturn has also caused dissatisfaction among the Japanese people, so it is not surprising that Kishida's approval rating is not surprising.
Of course, Fumio Kishida will not sit still, at the beginning of November this year, Kishida** launched a series of economic stimulus plans in a row, trying to revitalize the Japanese economy, which has been a pool of backwater.
One of these is the "one-time tax cut" program to alleviate the economic pressure on the Japanese people. But the Japanese public is skeptical of the plan.
Because since Fumio Kishida came to power, Japan's political focus has been on expanding its military strength, especially when Japan's domestic economy is in trouble, Kishida** is still increasing Japan's military spending.
Like a fanatical warmonger, Kishida has not only updated Japan's security policy, but also further increased Japan's defense budget. He even said that he would bring Japan's military spending to a peak in the next five years.
For example, at the beginning of 2023, Kishida** purchased Tomahawk missiles on a large scale and equipped the Self-Defense Forces with "Type 12" surface-to-ship missiles. The introduction of these ** alone has cost Japan's budget of 211.3 billion yuan. And that's not even counting other defense spending.The problem is that while the country's economy is rising steadily, there is nothing wrong with appropriately increasing military spending, but it is somewhat ridiculous to insist on increasing defense spending when the Japanese people are not even able to eat.
According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, as of the end of March 2023, Japan's total debt has reached 1,270 trillion yen.In addition, the recent scandals in the Japanese cabinet have continued, first Japanese Vice Finance Minister Kenji Kanda defaulted on taxes to force Kishida to apologize publicly, and then there were cabinet ministers who ate and drank to cause public dissatisfaction. This also shows that if Fumio Kishida does not reflect on it, then his ruling career is about to enter the countdown.
At a time when the San Francisco meeting ended successfully and Sino-US relations entered an uphill road, Kishida also seemed to realize the importance of restoring normal diplomatic relations between China and Japan.
According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency on October 22, Kishida** decided to remove Hideo Tarumi, a representative of Japan's anti-China forces, and chose Kenji Kanesugi, who is not a member of the "China Question Group", as the new ambassador to China, which also seems to indicate that Sino-Japanese relations are returning to normal.
In fact, it is not difficult to understand Kishida's move, since Fumio Kishida came to power in October 2021, Japan's policy has maintained a high degree of consistency with the United States.
And this is not only reflected in the establishment of bilateral military cooperation with European countries, in addition, Japan** has also participated in a series of economic blockade actions against China.
For example, in the technology war against China's semiconductor control launched by Biden**, Japan has played a vanguard role. Therefore, while Sino-US relations have further developed, Kishida**'s China policy is also likely to be consistent with that of the United States.
However, if we take a closer look at Japan's series of anti-China actions, we will find that Japan's move is really an irrational act of hurting the enemy by 1,000 and inflicting 800 losses on itself.
After all, once Japan launches a new round of economic and technological sanctions against China, it will be Japan itself that will be the first to be impacted.
References:1. The approval rate has fallen to a new low, and the pressure on Fumio Kishida to govern is increasing day by day - Beijing Daily Network.
2, **Eating a big meal, Kishida's cabinet was criticized - Red Star News.
3. Three people resigned in two months, and the article sorted out the scandal of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's new cabinet - upstream news.