Dubai Visit Fails to Pay Off for Kishida
Tokyo, Dec. 3 (Jiji Press)--During his latest visit to Dubai, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida underscored his country's measures for decarbonization while asking leaders of Middle East nations for cooperation to calm the Palestinian situation.
At a time when public support rates for his cabinet are plunging, Kishida, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, tried to turn around the situation through diplomacy.
But the efforts do not appear to have paid off as political fund issues are spreading in the party, including suspected slush funds related to sales of fundraising party tickets at the LDP faction once headed by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The main purpose of Kishida's visit to Dubai was to deliver a speech at a summit-level meeting held as part of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP28.
In his speech on the first day of the two-day meeting on Friday, Kishida said that Japan will stop building new unabated coal-fired thermal power plants in an effort to reduce Japan's greenhouse gas emissions, and called for support to speed up decarbonization in developing and emerging nations.
"I showed Japan's intention to lead the efforts for Asia's decarbonization," he told reporters in Dubai on Saturday.
Kishida is set to attend the first Asia Zero Emission Community summit, to be held in line with a special summit between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Tokyo from Dec. 16. The AZEC summit is aimed at promoting Asia's decarbonization using Japan's technologies.
"We will lead Asia," a source close to the prime minister said.
Japan plans to maintain a certain level of coal-fired thermal power generation by reducing carbon dioxide emissions through a combustion technology in which ammonia is mixed with coal.
In the Dubai speech, however, Kishida did not touch on when existing thermal power plants in Japan will be scrapped, drawing criticism from European countries.
A middle-ranking LDP lawmaker said that the "international pledges" the prime minister made in Dubai for curbing global warming "lacked freshness."
Another aim of his Dubai visit was to help stabilize the Middle East situation, amid the fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
At meetings with Israeli President Issac Herzog and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, emir of Qatar, which brokered humanitarian pauses in the Israel-Hamas fighting, Kishida called for cooperation to calm the situation, such as improving the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
At the meeting with Herzog, Kishida praised Israel's agreement with Hamas on the humanitarian pauses and the release of hostages.
But Israel announced the restart of the fighting soon after the Herzog-Kishida meeting.
"It's regrettable," Kishida said. A Japanese government official accompanying the prime minister on the Dubai trip said, " The situation has changed from what we had expected."
Stability of the Middle East is critically important for Japan, which depends on the region for over 90 pct of its crude oil imports.
But what Japan can do for the region on the diplomatic front is limited. "We have no choice but to highlight humanitarian aid," a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
Meanwhile, the slush fund issue at the LDP's Abe faction came to light while Kishida was in Dubai.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who once served as secretary-general of the faction, have refused to give explanations on the matter.
Kishida's leadership will be tested as opposition parties are set to grill him in intensive debates slated for Friday at the budget committees of both chambers of Japanese parliament, pundits said.
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