This week I have tried to learn something about Japan’s new Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida. Here I have written about a few of my impressions.

He has been praised for being 明るい AKARUI (Bright) which makes a refreshing change from the previous Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga who was accused of being 暗い KURAI (Dark).

Social media images of Kishida posing in a red Hiroshima Carp baseball shirt, and of his wife’s homemade okonomiyaki dinner support that bright image.

He posted on twitter about his wife’s okonomiyaki on the day he became Prime Minister　一生忘れられないおいしさ　ISSHOU WASURERARENAI OISHISA（lit. a taste so good I will never be able to forget it）

Kishida’s character has also attracted praise. On TBS radio, a veteran politician called him おとなしそう (lit. appearing gentle). This combines the adjective おとなしい (minus the final い) with the suffix そう to express the idea of seeming or appearing.

Another TBS commentator, Morinaga Takuro described him definitely as an いい人 II HITO (a good person). To clarify, he added, Kishida is 悪いやつじゃない　WARUI YATSU JA NAI (not a bad bloke).

やつ (YATSU) is a very informal, slang word for person or thing that often makes me smile, especially when like this it is used unexpectedly by an older person.

The commentator’s point was that being an いいやつ II YATSU is a problem for Kishida. In his job as Prime Minister, he has to become a 悪いやつ WARUI YATSU, and this will be むずかしい MUZUKASHII (difficult).

Especially as according to Morinaga Takuro the political world is 百鬼夜行 HYAKKI YAKOU (lit, night-time parade of evil monsters).