Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s policy speech at the opening of the ordinary Diet session on Jan. 23 seemed a means to defend controversial political decisions made on important policy issues without broad public debate.

If so, Kishida should be bitterly criticized for showing blatant disrespect for the Diet.

Unless he does serious soul-searching about how he made all these weighty decisions without heeding public opinion, his vow to pursue “politics based on trust and empathy,” which he mentioned again in the speech, will remain just an empty slogan.

This year’s regular Diet session was launched with Kishida’s speech on his administration’s policies.

At the beginning of the address, Kishida said politics is a process in which the Diet debates policy decisions made after cautious discussion and consideration and then the government puts the decisions into action.

While saying that consideration, decisions and debate are all important and necessary, Kishida’s speech clearly placed the top priority on decisions made by the government.

His words apparently signaled that he is proud of a series of radical policy shifts he announced late last year with regard to national security and nuclear power generation.

But the process leading to these decisions was deeply flawed. Kishida claimed he considered these policy changes with extreme cautiousness and the utmost care. But it is difficult to take his words at face value.

Arguing that Japan is at “a historical crossroads,” Kishida cited his administration’s policy goal of “fundamental enhancement” of Japan’s defense capabilities.

He referred to steps that he will take to achieve this goal, including sharply increasing defense spending, giving the Self-Defense Forces the ability to strike enemy bases (counterstrike capabilities) and beefing up defense systems for the southwestern islands.

He said his administration had spent more than a year considering these proposals.

But policy debate on these measures was conducted mostly behind closed doors and only within the government and the ruling camp. As he repeatedly said his administration was still weighing these ideas up until when the decisions were announced, there was no substantial debate on these at the Diet.

There are no signs that the administration paid serious attention to the opposition and weighed the pros and cons from diverse perspectives.

While devoting an entire section to these security policy decisions, which he described as a “big shift,” Kishida only made a perfunctory reference to his decision to expand the use of nuclear power. He only talked about replacing aging reactors destined to be decommissioned and extending the legal life span of reactors.

His halfhearted discussion on this issue symbolized how he has made the decision in slow stages to create a fait accompli. This approach will not help win support for the policy change from a broad spectrum of the public, particularly people in areas affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In his policy speech last year, Kishida described his government’s plans to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in detail as the first topic. But the public health crisis was put on the back burner in this year’s address.

He pointed to the decision to downgrade the legal status of COVID-19 to a class of diseases including the seasonal flu under the Infectious Disease Law this spring. But he did not talk about such grim realities as the seriously strained and worryingly stretched health care system and the many daily deaths from the disease.

He should not forget the need to offer meticulous explanations about the government’s COVID policy to the public, including how to deal with the risks involved in the planned downgrading.

He referred to issues related to “politics and money” and politicians’ connections with the Unification Church, which is now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification--issues that led to the resignation of some Cabinet members--just before concluding his speech.

Kishida said, “I am feeling deep regret” (over the matter) as a politician who believes “trust is the most important foundation for politics.”

Although he pledged to make efforts to prevent such a scandal, he offered no specific action plan nor did he mention any plan for an investigation to uncover the entire picture of the religious organization’s relationship with politics.

Kishida must realize that he cannot hope to regain public trust if he tries to write this scandal off as a thing of the past.

The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 24