His name is Chikahiro Inatomi, a journalist from Japan’s Asahi Television.
Trump responded by referencing Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, stating that Japan was the best at sneaky attacks. This caused a brief moment of embarrassment for Kishida.
However, instead of directing their ire at the American side as they usually would, the right-wing supporters of Kishida chose to vent their anger at the journalist, Chikahiro Inatomi, who asked the question.
Judging by posts on Japanese social networks, Kishida’s supporters have been viciously attacking this senior journalist for the past few hours, claiming he asked a ‘stupid’ question that provoked Trump to mention Pearl Harbor, causing Japan to feel humiliated.
Although a handful of clear-minded Japanese netizens believe that the responsibility lies not with Chikahiro but with Trump, who confused the question of ‘why not inform allies’ with ‘not informing enemies.’ Some even mentioned that Chikahiro had actually been quite considerate of Kishida’s feelings in previous coverage. However, these voices were quickly overshadowed by the vitriol from Kishida’s supporters directed at Chikahiro.
Currently, some of Kishida’s supporters are campaigning for Asahi Television to blacklist Chikahiro. A supporter even went so far as to stir conspiracy theories linking Chikahiro’s previous role as the head of Asahi’s China bureau to claims that he was deliberately trying to embarrass Kishida and assist China.
As for the absurdity of Kishida’s supporters’ actions, which seem more focused on silencing the questioner than resolving the issue itself, foreign netizens watching the incident expressed that Chikahiro’s inquiry was, in fact, the ‘good question’ that allies, including the U.S., wanted to know.
Some pointed out that Trump using Pearl Harbor to mock Kishida and Japan merely highlights that he has always cared about U.S. interests rather than Japan’s.