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.