Looking back on the past year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a lecture in Tokyo that he had made "a series of difficult decisions."
After greeting the crowd at the lecture on Friday, Kishida said he had to "ask myself hard questions as the leader of a country and make a series of difficult decisions," including on global issues such as climate change and sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
"I hold the position of prime minister at a crossroads in history. My historic role is to grapple with the issues that cannot be postponed by honestly tackling them head on, one by one, and providing answers to them," he said.
Speaking about the Group of Seven summit to be held in Hiroshima in May, he expressed his desire to strengthen relations with China and South Korea, saying, "This will be a year in which Japan's diplomacy will be put to the test."
On the domestic policy front, Kishida positioned measures to combat the declining birthrate and child policy as issues that must be dealt with in the coming year, stressing that he must act firmly in confronting these tasks.
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