Kishida vows to lead with 'trust and empathy' to fix Japan

pleased to hear he has a concrete plan....

first the pledge, the other day.... now the vow. will promise be next?

Campaign with poetry, govern with prose

These lines of lyrics are from a quite old song, but still fitting.

“Prospects better premier says,

Within sight are Golden days”

(Depeche Mode, New dress)

Are there any women here? What a bleak representation of Japan this photo paints.

Some nice photos accompanying this article - an enraptured crowd hanging on his every word, one or two studiously taking notes North Korean style, some checking their phones or playing sudoku.

The award goes to the Emperor though, who's had a busy week, for the immaculately straight line of his parting - must have got up super-early to get that dead-right.

Trust and empathy, great….

achieve “a positive cycle of growth and distribution” 

How about trying to get that through actual free markets for a change?

he seeks to promote growth by investment into cutting-edge research and development

Ah yes, the government surely knows which winners to invest in on our behalf. Fabulous….

and promoting digitalization to modernize bureaucracy,

Don’t modernize it.

Eliminate it instead, and save us the money.

services and industries,

Hey pa, you are just the prime minister. It is the rest of us plebs that actually run services and industries.

while encouraging companies to hike wages.

supply and demand pal, Econ 001…

He also wants to step up government support for education and living costs.

Because the existing 40 trillion yen annual deficits aren’t enough?

This guy has his head in the sand, or is talking happy talk to get himself elected first…

Kishida said he hopes to close divisions caused by the pandemic that has worsened gaps between the rich and the poor.

To be frank, he doesn’t have control over that. A lot of people are richer now thanks to the central bank money printing in the US and the like.

So are you gonna introduce a wealth tax then, pal?

Sheez what a clown

At the end of his speech he whispered “of course after we change the constitution”.

No social distancing really. Some masks being worn incorrectly, and some people chatting during Kishida's speech. Rude.

Tasked with a crucial mission of rallying public support ahead of national elections expected on Oct 31, Kishida promised to pursue politics of “trust and empathy.”

Kishida: One thing is certain: I will exceed outgoing PM Suga in the platitudes and cliches in my pronouncements! Next up: I will extend my thoughts and prayers to all those affected by the pandemic. I feel your pain.

Please enjoy our GoTo 2.0 program.

“I will devote my body and soul to overcome the national crisis together with the people to pioneer the new era so that we can pass a bountiful Japan to the next generation,” said Kishida.

You know, it takes more than words to do this. When the Japanese electorate hears such statements, it just smacks of more BS, whatever Kishida feels in his heart of hearts. I hate to be pessimistic, but I am. There are just too many structural barriers, too little political will, and too much apathy among the public.

Decades of it.

Many experts, however, are skeptical if income raise could be possible.

I agree with the experts. It isn't happening this. We need something big , like back to 5% consumption tax or/and 100JPY for 0.8 USD

I pray that he can accomplish this agenda, and I really hope that Japan will start looking hard towards promoting and increasing support for the thousands living just above the poverty line.

I see it everyday and knowing how much money this nation has in reserve makes me wonder who is behind this falls policy.

@diagonalslip

pleased to hear he has a concrete plan....

I'm simply pleased to hear that he admits there is a problem that needs to be fixed.

First, in order to stay alive and turn things around you have to stop the bleeding.

The health care system is a complete scam and in need of a complete overhaul, private doctors and hospitals and ripping off the system by having patients schedule a return appointment when it's NOT needed, medicines are being prescribed to patients when it's no longer needed. and the list goes on and on.

Let me interpret everything for you. He said ''I'm going to promise to do things just like Abe promised. However, I'm going to do very little and just let things stay as they are as my business buddies don't want the boat rocked. Thank you, good night.''

So his plan to fix a widening wealth gap is to ask companies to pay more to the well off employees? That seems counterproductive.

Not that it'll actually have any effect at all, as the government has been urging companies to raise wages for the past 10 years or more, and there's no sign of it ever happening.

How about:

Overhaul the tax system, the local tax system, the furusato tax system, the sales tax system, the pension system and the health insurance system, which seem to have all been designed to penalize those who don't have 'permanent' jobs at big companies.

Overhaul the education system which sees the government pay the least for public education of any G20 country, while parents pay the most for education of any G20 country... meaning that getting those cushy 'permanent' jobs is much more accessible to those whose parents can pay for all the cram schools needed.

Cut sales tax to 0% on essential items like groceries, kids clothes, etc.. If necessary, boost it on luxury items to compensate.

Make it so that low income families don't see 35% of their income gone on taxes, pensions, health insurance before they even have to start thinking about rent, food etc...

I'd like to invest money in stocks and in my kids futures, but every time I try and save enough money to do so, I get some threatening letter demanding the payment of hundreds of thousands of yen into various wasteful pension and health insurance systems. It's almost as if they are monitoring incase anyone tries to improve their situation, so they can quickly step in and put a stop to it.

Kishida vows to lead with 'trust and empathy' 

Can't think of a better place to start than properly investigating the suicide of Toshio Akagi. No better way to demonstrate empathy for a widow whose husband killed himself because of corrupt Jimin-to practices.

No better way to build trust than to properly address corruption within their own government and properly seek out out and punish those responsible for the death of another human being.

Oh wait, he 'Didn't get the letter yet.'

https://japantoday.com/category/politics/corrected-bureaucrat's-widow-asks-pm-to-look-into-scandal-that-led-to-suicide

we can pass a bountiful Japan to the next generation

Sure, a society of faceless, shelfish robots who can't think outside of the box. What a bountiful thing to pass on!

I'm determined to defend our land, territorial seas and air space, and the people's lives and assets, no matter what

LOL, This guy doesn't even have the guts to get the Northern Territories back from Russia and now he's wants to defend the land from the PLA, an army made of real men.

How are you going to defend the country Kishida? When the Japanese youth instead of being strong and manly, are a bunch of herbivores addicted to video games.

Jeez, I love this country and its people but the government is a complete joke.

Promises are made to be broken! Action involves showing some results, from now until its just lip service, normal political rhetoric.

Change Japan? Odds on this are so slim the bookies won't look at it.

Empathy! To achieve anything close to that, he needs to initiate massive law reform.

Realisticly, a country like Japan can never really change while it is controlled by a third rate bureaucracy and not the Prime Minister.

China is upset with America, for deployment of US special forces troops in Taiwan, they learn like everyone from the news

Kishida could not fight his way out of a wet paper bag,with his paper tiger policy

Fighting blindly is not good for any country.

Empathy from a party of sociopath

 “trust and empathy.”

Yeah, just like "compassionate conservatism". Laughable. Shrub must have dropped some seeds in Japan and look at what sprouted!

Realisticly, a country like Japan can never really change while it is controlled by a third rate bureaucracy and not the Prime Minister.

Ever see a British TV show called "Yes Minister"?

"Trust and empathy" from a politician???

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...