Kishida’s sub-20% approval rate is good news for China

Asia Times ^

[FarCenter]

TOKYO – That loud ticking sound emanating from the Japanese capital is Fumio Kishida’s political clock counting down toward zero.

Approval ratings in the neighborhood of 30% tend to spell the end of Japanese governments. Prime Minister Kishida’s is now below 20% – and dropping as the economy sinks into recession and inflation outpaces wage growth.

The rising odds that Kishida will soon be shown the door is stellar news for Xi Jinping’s China and a dismal turn of events for Joe Biden’s White House.

Since grabbing the premiership in October 2021, Kishida has been as close an ally to US President Biden as any. And a pivotal one, representing a key pillar of Biden’s “Indo-Pacific strategy” to encircle an ascendant China.

At its core is the “Quad partnership” of the US, Japan, India and Australia. For Biden, Kishida is the indispensable Asia-region ally.

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With Japan perhaps already in recession, this period of leadership intrigue leaves zero time to step up efforts to get Japan’s economy back on track.

Kishida will have even less political bandwidth to cut bureaucracy, increase innovation and productivity, catalyze a startup boom, better utilize female talent and remind the globe why Tokyo is still worth a look when thinking of places to headquarters companies and lost shares.

It hardly helps that China’s rise is quickening Asia’s economic clock. The more Tokyo squanders opportunities to raise its economic game and wages, the greater the advantage to Xi’s China.

For the rest of Asia, not so much. As Japan walks in place, its economy isn’t pulling its economic weight in a region in dire need of growth engines. From Seoul to Jakarta, Japan acting more as a drag on growth than as a growth contributor will dim prospects for 2024.

[bert]

——It hardly helps that China’s rise is quickening Asia’s economic clock——

China is presently in terminal decline with no possible solution so long as the CCP insists on erasing all traces of capitalism excess

[In_Iowa_not_from]

Fortunately, China is its own worse enemy as has been the case for most of history.