Japan has a new prime minister named Shigeru Ishiba. He’s the former Defense Minister and Japanese pop culture otaku, making him quite an interesting politician. Today, let’s explore six things you didn’t know about Japan’s new political leader!
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Six Things You Didn’t Know About Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba!
When it began modernizing in the 1860s, Japan had a unique opportunity to study the entire world to see which institutions would best fit the new nation it wanted to become. It copied the French prefectural system, patterned its military after that of Prussia, and looked to the U.S. when creating a modern education system. But more often than not, Japan chose to emulate “Great Britain-senpai,” building its government around the British-style Parliamentary model. Japan’s prime minister is the elected head of the current ruling party, which, for most of the postwar period, has been the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.
And now Japan has a new prime minister named Shigeru Ishiba, a popular politician and former Defence Minister from Tottori Prefecture. Let’s get to know him!
Shigeru Ishiba’s Politics
First, his politics. Ishiba is a long-time member of Japan’s ruling LDP, a party that is pro-business, pro-U.S. relations and supportive of Japan’s domestic agriculture sector. He strongly favors Japan’s special military relationship with the U.S. Further, he supports amending Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which states that “land, sea and air forces…will never be maintained,” which puts Japan’s current military in a legal grey zone. Ishiba supports fiscal discipline and economic reform and believes Japan should be more assertive in world affairs. He supports the creation of an “Asian NATO” to counter the power of China and Russia.
To be “right-leaning” in Japanese politics is to be pro-U.S. and in favor of building up Japan’s military capabilities, especially in defense of Japan’s major ally, Taiwan. It also means you support the role of the Japanese Emperor as the symbolic head of state. To be left-leaning in Japan means you might prioritize pacifism and want Japan to move away from the United States economically, and support ending the Imperial system. You’ll generally support socialist policies and oppose nuclear energy.
Shigeru Ishiba Is Famous as a Military Otaku
Shigeru Ishiba has been Japan’s Defence Minister off-and-on since 2002 and is widely viewed as an expert on military matters. He has an official YouTube channel where he geeks about his passion for putting together plastic models of Japanese warships and talks about how it takes him a week or so to properly assemble a model. He’s also a fan of plastic models of classic Japanese cars, like the Subaru 360. Japanese revere this car as one of Japan’s first successful export products in the postwar era.
He’s a Blogger and a Cosplayer
While researching this post, I was happy to find that Shigeru Ishiba has a blog. In 2016 he wrote a post describing under which conditions he would deploy the Japanese self-defence forces if the nation were attacked by Godzilla. He’s also done cosplay! In 2018, he dressed up as Majin Buu from Dragon Ball Z to promote a figure museum that opened in his home prefecture of Tottori.
He Loves Anime, Idols and Model Trains
We already had Japan’s first anime otaku prime minister with Taro Asou, and now this tradition continues with Shigeru Ishiba. In addition to anime and manga, he loves classic idol groups from his youth. He also loves anime like City Hunter and Cat’s Eye, and occasionally shops at Nakano Broadway otaku shopping district. His favorite anime is the dark Saraba Yamato film, which made me smile, as I’m a fan, too.
His Nickname Is ‘Geru’
Although Shige-chan would seem to be a more natural nickname, he’s long been known as Geru-Choukan or Defence Minister Geru. Now he’s been upgraded to Geru-Souri or Prime Minister Geru. This nickname seems to have come about when a user on X entered his name in hiragana and hit the space bar to convert it to kanji, but 石橋ゲル (“Ishibashi Geru”) came up instead of 石破茂 (“Ishiba Shigeru”). “Geru” (with a hard ‘G’) is the Japanese representation of the English word “gel.”
He Refuses to Join Any LDP Faction
Japan’s ruling political party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is unique in postwar politics because it’s been so successful. Formed in 1955 by a merger of two existing parties, it’s held power almost nonstop over the past 70 years. The party is so large that it contains internal factions that function like miniature political parties, like the Abe Faction or the Asou Faction. Ishiba has often criticized this internal factionalism and has generally avoided joining any of the groups…which is one reason why it took him so long to finally get elected prime minister.
Even More Facts About Shigeru Ishiba!
Let’s go with even more facts about Japan’s new prime minister.
- Ishiba hails from Tottori Prefecture, Japan’s least populous region, with only 538,525 residents. Tottori is famous for being the location of the only “desert” in Japan, the Tottori Sand Dunes. It’s located on the Sea of Japan side across from Kyoto.
- He considers himself an expert on curry and ramen. He’s the chairman of a group of lawmakers who pledge to promote Japan’s ramen culture around the world.
- He believes in UFOs and has discussed how Japan should react to violations of its air space by aliens.
- Ishiba loves to read and says he reads three books a day.
- He’s had an extremely long career in politics, entering office at the age of 29 nearly four decades ago.
- He loves his wife, Yoshiko, more than anything. When asked what he would do if he could be 18 years old again, he replied, “I’d go look for my wife.”
- His blood type is B, which made Mrs. J-List say, “Yappari! [I knew it]” Supposedly, people who obsess over otaku-related topics tend to be blood type B, like me.
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