In the policy speech he gave before parliament Tuesday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida articulated his foreign policy as “Realism-based Diplomacy for a New Era.”
He described it as a policy of “firmly holding up the banner of ideals for the future while facing the reality,” which is “becoming increasingly severe and complex.”
The nation's mainstream media, however, seems to be ambivalent about Kishida’s realism. The editorials of liberal newspapers were more obsessed with domestic and economic issues. The Asahi Shimbun criticized the prime minister for not being forthcoming on the issue of the Nuclear Weapons Convention, even though he proposed to establish an "International Council of Wise Men" for a “world without nuclear weapons.”