Under Japanese Pressure, Time Magazine Toned Down Its Accurate Description of Kishida’s Militarism Policy

Fumio Kishida is on the cover of Time magazine for his innovative way of changing Japan’s defense policy from a shield to a sword, although this phrase is now shunned for fear that Japan’s real motives will become all too transparent. The original title of the Time magazine piece had read: “Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Is Turning a Once Pacifist Japan into a Military Power,” which is a fairly accurate description, albeit probably sending chills down the spine of some of its neighbors and the few surviving World War II veterans, who had felt the blows of Japan as a “military power.” Time agreed to water it down a bit, writing on its internet version instead that Kishida is “giving a once pacifist Japan a more assertive role on the world stage.”