Speaking at the opening of the current session of Parliament on Jan. 17, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asserted: ¡°Amid an increasingly severe and complex international situation, this is a year that will test how astute Japanese diplomacy can be.¡±
He continued: ¡°I will stand at the fore, firmly holding aloft the flag of ideals for the future, and, looking squarely at the actual situation, pursue ¡®realism diplomacy for a new era.¡¯¡± Tellingly, in subsequent weeks the English version of Kishida¡¯s speech underwent some revisions.
While the initial English translation released by the Cabinet Office rendered Kishida¡¯s vision of Japanese diplomacy as ¡°tough but adaptable,¡± this was recently changed to ¡°astute,¡± as in ¡°astute diplomacy¡± (shitatakana gaik¨), presumably in an effort to dispel any negative connotation inherent to the original Japanese. The administration¡¯s struggle to convey to the world a diplomatic position that is realistic, persistent and flexible is understandable given an international environment that has been roiled by U.S-China tensions, changes to the international order and geoeconomic conflicts that weaponize economies.
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