It's also creepy that this "Kanfuru Blog" forces the staff who acted as interpreters at APEC, the photographer in the photo studio at the Prime Minister's Office, and the Cabinet Public Relations Secretary who acts as the moderator at press conferences to make statements as if Prime Minister Suga's diplomacy is going well. "Some of the leaders of the other countries also have notes..." (the interpreter), "Some (previous prime ministers) were very concerned about their clothes and hairstyles, but Prime Minister Suga doesn't seem to care that much. Rather, it seems like it's all about the content" (the photographer), "Today, he answered questions without even looking at the notes he prepared himself" (the public relations secretary), etc. I don't think it's good to force your family members to do something just because no one praises you. Seeing that two of the three people mentioned the notes, I wonder if they are very concerned about the "notes" at the Japan-China summit.
However, no matter how much the government later tried to patch things up on its website, it was clear to the public who were following the news of the Prime Minister's actions in the newspapers the next morning that the Suga Cabinet's response on the day of the incident was poor.
The incident occurred on November 23rd, which was a national remove background image holiday, Labor Thanksgiving Day. Shortly after 4pm, when the news began to be reported in Japan, Prime Minister Suga was meeting with Democratic Party of Japan Deputy Chairman of the National Diet Affairs Committee, Saito Takeshi, at his official residence. When pressed later in the Diet about whether he had prioritized Diet matters over Japan's national security issues, he said, "I turned on the TV and said I was worried," which is nothing short of astonishing.
He left the official residence at 4:43pm and entered his office at 4:44pm, after which Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Motohisa Furukawa and Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management Tetsuro Ito entered the official residence at 4:46pm. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, who could be considered the "shadow prime minister", arrived at 5:50pm. Afterwards, from 5:12pm he gave a hanging interview. Here he made no criticism of North Korea and made foolish remarks as if he had only learned about the incident through the media.
Prime Minister Suga then attended an event at the Imperial Palace, and then held a cabinet meeting on the "North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea" from 8:55 p.m. The question remains as to why it wasn't a Security Council meeting, but the relevant cabinet members finally gathered. More than six hours after the incident, there is no sign of any Democratic Party politicians other than the chief cabinet secretary and deputy chief cabinet secretary visiting the Prime Minister's Office. Astonishingly, National Public Safety Commission Chairman Okazaki Tomiko did not even come to work on the day of the incident, instead waiting for contact from the government office. When asked why the cabinet members had not gathered, Prime Minister Suga said the following day, "It was a holiday so we couldn't get together."