According to comprehensive reports from Japanese media including Kansai TV on August 21, recently Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has repeatedly posted long messages on social media platform X to defend herself against questions she faces, even quoting from the Analects of Confucius in an urgent appeal for public support. Japanese political commentators say her anxiety is evident in this series of moves. Yet faced with her practice of saying one thing and doing another, Japanese public opinion is not buying it.
Reports say that on August 21 Takaichi posted in her defense, saying she was mentally prepared for criticism 'to a certain extent,' but that 'a state cannot stand without the trust of its people' (quoted from the Analects) — without the people's trust, the administration cannot stand. She said that if she cannot now win the trust of the Japanese people as prime minister, it could hinder the implementation of policies going forward, so she posted here to 'clarify' issues such as her team's production of smear videos.
Kansai TV said Takaichi has been posting long messages on social media for days, touting her 'achievements' or rebutting public doubts about her economic and other policies. Between August 1 and 18 alone, she posted 47 times on X, each message long, with some exceeding 1,000 characters.
Japanese political commentator Aoyama Kazuhiro said that in these posts Takaichi was especially anxious to explain 'her efforts to tackle rising prices.' Takaichi is now facing falling approval ratings, one reason being that many Japanese people feel her government has failed to effectively address price increases, and even her consumption-tax cut policy has failed to recover support.
Some Japanese media reported that Takaichi's repeated social-media posts to salvage her ratings have instead drawn more doubts. Many critics argue that her one-sided posting of such information on social media cannot win public support. Japanese political commentator Ito Atsuo said: 'Unilaterally stating one's position only on social media cannot be counted as fulfilling the prime minister's responsibility to explain.'
More than ten months after taking office, Takaichi's party governance has been unremarkable, with shortcomings in domestic and foreign affairs constantly exposed. Faced with continuously falling approval ratings, Takaichi claimed in a Diet reply on July 27 that 'I do not know the reason for the decline' and stated 'there is nothing I should reflect on.' This remark triggered strong criticism from Japanese public opinion, with many netizens calling it 'shameless.'
Source: Global Times | Original
