Japanese tabloid Sentaku is claiming that Prime Minister Takaichi initially wanted to answer Trump's call to dispatch naval forces to the Strait of Hormuz. However, she allegedly got into a shouting match with former Abe advisor Imai Naohisa, who insisted it was a terrible idea. Takaichi caved in and reversed course:
「“That bastard had me completely cornered. I can’t forgive him. I’m going to cut him loose.”
Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae was not her usual self. On the night of March 24, in front of government officials gathered at the prime minister’s residence, she flew into a rage and blurted this out.
“That bastard” refers to Imai Naohisa, the head of the Cabinet Secretariat staff. Needless to say, he is the former executive secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who supported Abe’s long administration. He was also the “shadow fixer” who pushed Takaichi’s shocking dissolution-and-snap-election strategy and led it to a historic landslide victory. But now he is the object of her resentment. She was talking about dismissing that very Imai.
The cause lay in the Japan-U.S. summit meeting. Takaichi had in fact intended to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s request by dispatching the Self-Defense Forces to the Strait of Hormuz. Imai angrily called this “national ruin,” stormed into the prime minister’s executive office, and got into a heated argument with Takaichi. Their shouting match reportedly came close to a screaming fit.
“What on earth are you thinking? Do you have any idea what will happen?!”
As will be discussed later, objections to dispatching the Self-Defense Forces continued from both the government and ruling parties, and Takaichi ultimately reversed course. But even after returning from what, ironically, had been a successful Japan-U.S. summit, the emotional scars from the rebuke she received from Imai had not healed...」
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こたつぬこ
木下ちがや
木下ちがや@sangituyama
これは政治史に残る大事なエピソードなんですよ。もしここで今井尚哉参与が自衛隊を派遣をトランプと約束しようとしていた高市総理を体を張って止めなければ、歴史は変わっていたかもしれないのです。
高市が「退陣」を口にした夜 【公式】三万人のための総合情報誌『選択』- 選択出版