If one only looked at Fumio Kishida's recent foreign policy efforts, it might seem like he is enjoying great success as prime minister.
He has been rubbing elbows with other heads of government and earning the spotlight on the world stage. For the past month, his administration has reached milestone after milestone in bilateral and multilateral relations.
However, a look at how Kishida is faring back home tells a different story. His polling numbers still remain in the “caution area,” and there seems to be little opportunity for him to turn things around before the next set of nationwide elections in April. This creates a gap between what some foreign observers see in the media and what political watchers recognize about the stability of the Kishida administration.