Kishida says he has no plans to attend Beijing Winter Olympics

Well, it's not like he was going to win a medal or anything...

Very ballsy Kishida san, but very much playing with fire. Keep your friends close, but enemies closer..

"At the moment, I have no plans to attend"

BUT......

place your bets please, on the date of the announcement that he will go.....

also, odds on these reasons:

in the interests of bettering neighbour relations

in the spirit of the Olympic Games

to represent the Japanese people on the world stage

Dark suit, lectern, clenched fist, guts pose; squinting, it could almost be Shinzo.

Kish the Bish is inventing a new form of capitalism and he ain't afraid o' no ghosts. He don't got no time for Beijing, no way.....

if I was him I’d say I’m not going because spectators are banned by the Chinese. problem solved. He’s not an athlete right?

Very brave decision - oh wait, didn’t America make the decision first and he is just hiding behind them? Would he do that if Biden and crew were going to attend?

A true sovereign nation, with original ideas. Would carry more weight by boycotting all together if you were really concerned about human rights.

Nice, Kishida.

As long as he doesn't boycott, it's OK.

It's a kick in the butt of the US.

China's zero corona totalitarianism will fail the Beijing Games. A single case leads to full shutdown of the entire city or province & compulsory testing to all locals...nonsense. But the covid may give a valid excuse for absence of foreign officials.

Boycott or not, the Japanese and other governments should get a clear message to Beijing. For the UK, send Borat. For Japan, send any pornstar as as representative who is also popular in China (but often victims to copyright breach). The Beijing Games is already a joke, and Japan better respond accordingly.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his willingness to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Despite that Team Russia is still banned from attending the Games.... now I see it's a Russian joke :)

Boycott the Genocide Games. Entirely.

JoeintokyoToday  05:57 pm JST

I wonder if he's following the orders of Nippon Kaigi or the U.S.

Same thing. No point wondering.

Olympics must not be politicized. That7s what we hear on news from CCP and Putin shouting.

No politicians should attend. Right?

Various options are being mulled including sending Seiko Hashimoto, an upper house lawmaker and president of the organizing committee of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, or Japanese Olympic Committee head Yasuhiro Yamashita, according to government and ruling party sources.

Sending Yamashita is a plausible option. He's non-official, yet counterpart to an Chinese official visitor dispatched to the Tokyo Games this summer.

An irony is, Yamashita used to be the top active judoka qualified to attend and expected to win a medal at the 1980 Moscow Games, fully boycotted by the US and other West countries including Japan. He was seen weeping in a press conference after the Japanese government had announced the boycott.

Another irony is, Prime Minister Kishida belonged to a LDP faction led by Masayoshi Ohira, the former Prime Minister who decided to boycott the Moscow Games.

@noriahjanen

Sound like the perfect candidate.

Hope he or Hashimoto got it.

I still think it's better if Japan sends some lower ministers or a non-official VIP like Taro Aso.

Can't honestly work out why a boycott of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar isn't more on the agenda. Qatar is worse than China for human rights (women, LGBT etc...).

Can't honestly work out why a boycott of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar isn't more on the agenda. Qatar is worse than China for human rights (women, LGBT etc...).

Not doubting that Qatar is an evil place, run by despicable, disgusting Sheiks. The WC there will be the worst ever, no doubt at all.

But they do not imprison millions of minorities in concentration camps and commit genocide against them, as communist China does. Worst since the Nazis. They also dont threaten other nations constantly with warlike behaviour, and illegally occupy others like Tibet.

There is actually no need to go. As the nation pm, why would he even go when we still have so problems that need solving here? It set a very bad example if he went to watch the games for days while the nation need him to make certain decisions.

@Hiro

Putin is going without problem.

Xi never attended Tokyo 2021.

He could have made himself

He could have made himself at least appear very statesmanlike and important by issuing a stern statement as follows: 'Having been made aware of the deplorable plight of 900,000 children who were forcibly removed from their homes in Tibet last week and placed in secure child-prison-orphanages to undergo enforced Sinicisation without limit of time, I have considered it totally unethical to make a visit to a country which can behave in such an unbelievably cruel manner'.

But sadly he missed this opportunity, as do most of our spineless world leaders who seem terrified about calling out China and its fascist regime.

@Martimurano

LOL, US propaganda again.

Why do they say Britain instead of the UK.

I notice the photo of Kishida clenching his fist is copying or emulating the exact same posture as Biden.

This whole boycott idea is a recipe for disaster.

Lord Jinping didn't attend Tokyo 2020..

No problem.

Lord Putin will go to Beijing games..

Lord Putin rules!!..

Lol..

being a US lapdog does not require any courage or leadership

Iron Lad:

"LOL, US propaganda again"

Well, if you care to Google 'Tibetan children forced into state-run boarding-schools' you can read all about it there, or find the Tibet Action Groups' Report, it's states clearly how 900,000 children (some as young as 4) have been forcibly taken from their parents and are being held indefinitely at these indoctrination centres.

Just imagine for one second how you would feel if you were one of these children or parents...... perhaps now you realise that it's hardly a laughing matter.

But Kishida followed up by saying, "It is important to make a judgment by myself at an appropriate time after comprehensively taking into account various issues in consideration of the national interest."

Playing both sides again

while France said last week it will not boycott in a break from other Group of Seven industrialized nations.

This is why you're not a security partner, France

US lapdog

USA doesn't have a monopoly on caring about human rights

This is stupid, This should treated and call the Cancel Olympic. Did not China cancel the Who investigation in the source of the Covid. Cancel contract with countries that supported the Who investigation. Cancel any family attendance at the Cancel games. They have accused Japan of politicising the Olympic. China, you are doing a good enough job of politicising the Cancel game without Japan's help.

@Alan Bogglesworth

Google

And Google just puts up there with no agenda, am I right?