Kishida interrupts campaign after N Korea test-fires missile

This article was well written.

But where did the korean missile land ?

Where do most Korean missiles land? Sea of Japan.

“I will drastically strengthen our defense capabilities. The Kishida administration is determined to protect our land, territorial sea and air space as well as the people’s lives and assets no matter what," Kishida said after returning to the capital.

Taxes up then…

Nippon, NK can hit Japan early and often,the US could bust a cap on NK any time they want too by land air and sea, Tokyo is a 10 minute striking distance from NK

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I personally believe that the LDP is closer to the Kim regime than any of us know. I mean, Kishida keeps talking about strengthening Japan's defenses against foreign dangers and then presto change-o! The NK missile comes flying over as if on cue. The timing is way too perfect. Less than 2 weeks before an election. I mean this is a gift from NK to the LDP. And this is NOT the first time its happened just before an election.

What to use of being a leader and cannot protect his citizens, useless Paper Tigers

to deal with rising regional tensions following North Korea's test-firing of a missile earlier in the day.

and how did he exactly deal with it, the article doesn’t say?

Kishida said he has instructed the government to consider all options, including allowing Japanese forces to acquire a pre-emptive strike capability. So there is a solution get more weapons and be more aggressive. And of course change the constitution so no change in Nippon Kaigie policy just ramp up the fear. Not a response to a threat more a standard response from the view point of wanting to change the constitution. Hereditary positions hereditary policies, hereditary response. Nothing new.

Kishida can do his perfunctory PR shtick for the upcoming election, but there's little he can do to stop Kim's shtick of shooting off missiles to show off his "leadership" and prove his Korean "masculinity".

u_s__reamerToday  08:39 am JST

Kishida can do his perfunctory PR shtick for the upcoming election, but there's little he can do to stop Kim's shtick of shooting off missiles to show off his "leadership" and prove his Korean "masculinity".

I don't think he wants to. It's the perfect excuse for all the LDP armchair samurai to talk tough and spend more on military gear.

Yes, that surely is more kind of a conspiracy theory and constructed correlation. lol

Why should they force the LDP or Japan (by missiles as a ‘gift’?) to put the few of the remaining money all into defense, while they urgently need support for everything, from food to medical or humanitarian help? Their interest is surely not an equally strong militarily equipped Japan, but of course more a slightly stronger economy in Japan, leading also to a bigger helping hand for NK , unofficial, hidden , under the table, indirectly, whatever, and all the missile ‘messages’ are the reminder to the next PM for that issue.

“I will drastically strengthen our defense capabilities. The Kishida administration is determined to protect our land, territorial sea and air space as well as the people’s lives and assets no matter what,"

Thats some pretty strong language from a Japanese PM.

"Fumio Kishida's campaign was already off to a rocky start with media polls showing his support rating sliding."

Hahaha... that didn't take long. I give him until April or May.

In any case, this test firing is what happens when you donate to Yasukuni and "vow" to solve the abduction issue merely for political points. What'd he think was going to happen? And make no mistake, he didn't leave the meeting and go to deal with it, he left and ran so he could ask others what he should do. He did not want the JOB of PM, he just wanted the title and a few photo ops to do with it. After a few debacles under his belt and decisions by the string pullers put into place, Kishida will be canned and they'll put in Kono.

@ Aly Rustom & @gintonic

About tie between LDP and NK

That is possible. Guess several people consider it a possibility.

Could also just be that NK beneficit of having LDP for their own regime. Having an enemy works booth way, so having a less warmonger party in lead could prove troublesome.

And, we should not forget how LDP like to stir up their neighbor to use fear to have Japanese fall in order. See how many visit &co in Yasukuni they made sure to have reported by the press recently.

Why should they force the LDP or Japan (by missiles as a ‘gift’?) to put the few of the remaining money all into defense, while they urgently need support for everything, from food to medical or humanitarian help?

Maybe because the LDP is giving them all that help quietly in return for the missile that scares the public here into voting for them again?

Their interest is surely not an equally strong militarily equipped Japan, but of course more a slightly stronger economy in Japan, leading also to a bigger helping hand for NK , unofficial, hidden , under the table, indirectly, whatever, and all the missile ‘messages’ are the reminder to the next PM for that issue.

Their interests are the same as the LDP's- having a big bad monster that they can point to to get votes, since both the LDP and Kim regime have nothing but nationalistic hubris to offer their people.

Sigh. None of this is even remotely related to the upcoming election in Japan. DPRK was deeply embarrassed that ROK was able to launch a missile from an operational submarine rather than some test barge before they could, and are freaking out that ROK is series building subs that can launch these ballistic missiles, along with an ROK designed and built long range cruise missile at them. ROK is beyond testing, they are building hardware in significant numbers while DPRK is was still fooling around with their test barge and doesn't have a sub ready to go yet. DPRK and Kim are under the gun politically to match ROKs capabilities.

A quick check reveals that this is about the 150th time North Korea has launched a missile/rocket in the Sea of Japan.

Seriously, the 150th time.

I doubt if the Pyongyang dictatorship would politically give a fig whether LDP or any other party was pulling the strings of power.

Let alone test launch a new generation of ballistic missile to sway or affect the J electorate.

Pyongyang sent message, we will soon have the delivery system to being mass destruction, ultimately undermining US credibility within the region.

Kishida, a former foreign minister from Hiroshima, was previously considered dovish and advocated a nuclear weapons ban.

He has increasingly turned hawkish, apparently to gain support from conservative heavyweights within his governing Liberal Democratic Party, including former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

He has called for bolstering Japan's defense budget and capabilities.

What really does Fumio Kishida stand for?

What is Fumio Kishida policy priorities?

The support welfare of people of Japan, the electorate, or the support from conservative heavyweights within his governing Liberal Democratic Party?

It is open to debate

Fumio Kishida will have to make a choice!

Why is North Korea repeating missile testing? To launch a war against Japan and the U.S.A.? Do they think they could sustain and win the war if they started it? If they do, they are no different from the mindless war-time leaders of pre-1945 Japan. 

They must know more than enough that they are no match for the Japan-U.S. military alliance.  And yet Japan's conservative politicians take this as a god-send opportunity to revise the pacifist constitution and also to strengthen its military capability, doubling the defense budget.

VoiceofOkinawa

China would intervene just like before. You attack N. Korea it's like attacking China.

A possible and likely alliance between China, Russia and N. Korea would be more then enough to counter a Pacifist Japan with limited capabilities and a USA which is very devided and just ended a 20 year war.

American are not going to war to defend Japan, when the US homeland is not threatening, Japanese should base their rhetoric on their ability to fight their way out of a wet paper bag

Why is North Korea repeating missile testing? To launch a war against Japan and the U.S.A.? Do they think they could sustain and win the war if they started it? If they do, they are no different from the mindless war-time leaders of pre-1945 Japan. 

DPRK and the Kim family distrust both Russia and China. They are not convinced either nation would come to their aid in a war with the US and ROK. Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung detested Nikita Kruschev and Leonid Breezhnev. He saw the USSR abandon their mutual defense pact with Vietnam when China went to war with Vietnam in 1979. From then on the Kims knew the Russians could not be relied on to come to their aid in a war. Kim detested Mao for two reasons. Number one was the Cultural Revolution greatly weakened China. Number two, Kim asked Mao to make removal of US forces from Korea a pre-condition for China to normalize relations with the US. Mao ignored him. The DPRK leadership, if you call them leaders, are deeply afraid that were the US and ROK to attack them they would be on their own with no significant support from Russia or China. This fear is what drives their armaments programs including and especially their nuclear weapons program.

Then, what is he going to do about this case???

American are not going to war to defend Japan, when the US homeland is not threatening, Japanese should base their rhetoric on their ability to fight their way out of a wet paper bag

Defending another democracy from attack by a totalitarian police state is entirely different than the stupid wars fought in the Middle East. Japan is a free country with an elected government. It's not some hopelessly corrupt hereditary dictatorship or failed nation. If China did manage to conquer Japan the Chinese would not stop there and every member of Congress knows this. It would be a war for the very survival of the US. It is not something the US could look the other way at. There would be no Congressional opposition to defending Japan and any US President who didn't would get impeached and convicted in days. Ditto for Taiwan.

LDP lawmakers are hoping for Japan capable of attacking hostile missile sites pre-emptively in spite of the war-renouncing constitution. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary under the Koizumi administration, Shinzo Abe accompanied then P.M. Junichiro Koizumi to Pyongyang for a negotiation to retrieve Japanese citizens who had been kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970's and 80's. 

Since then, Abe has been saying North Korea poses great danger to Japan, thus helping the Japanese government increment its defense budget, at first somewhat indirectly as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary but later directly as Prime Minister. 

China proved its reliability as North Korea's ally during the Korean War, for they sent hordes of troops (2.4 million of them) to the Korean Peninsula to assist the Kim Il-sung forces in carrying out the war against the U.S. in a troop formation known as the "human wave tactics".