When U.S. President Barack Obama laid a wreath at the Hiroshima peace memorial on Friday to honor the 140,000 victims of the world's first atomic bomb attack, one of the city's best-known native sons was standing nearby — and in a position to take credit for arranging the historic event.
For Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to the site marked a high-point of more than 20 years in politics. Kishida is widely seen as a possible successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and his role in laying the groundwork for the ceremony will further raise his profile in a country where polls showed the vast majority of voters favored the visit.
"Obama's visit to Hiroshima will be the culmination of the postwar Japan-U.S. relationship. This historic achievement will give Kishida the qualification to become prime minister," said Takashi Kawakami, president of the Institute of World Studies at Takushoku University in Tokyo. "Kishida now needs to make the case that this was his achievement."