When Prime Minister Fumio Kishida earlier this month fired a close aide over discriminatory remarks he made about sexual minorities, I was in Hawaii following the news of the shooting down of a Chinese high-altitude spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina by a U.S. F-22 fighter jet.

The U.S. military since the end of World War II has rarely if ever used force in confronting foreign intrusions into U.S. airspace.

Amid rising tensions over China¡¯s spy balloons, news emerged from Tokyo that Kishida fired an aide for telling reporters during an off-the-record session that he wouldn¡¯t want to live next doors to LGBT couples and suggested that some people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage were allowed. Few outside Japan have noticed this bizarre news from Tokyo.