Kishida is Fash and also extremely unpopular. I think he’s focusing on security issues because he knows he’s going to be ousted by someone else soon and the Yanks are offering him something behind the scenes to force through unpopular war laws before he goes (including an extremely unpopular consumption tax increase to fund military spending).
This dude at one point promised to increase wages and the first thing he did was consult with the Shosha (trading companies, socially and financially Japan’s equivalent of Wall St, remnants of the Zaibatsu) about how they could pay their people more. Just imagine Biden promising to increase wages and the first thing he does is go talk to Goldman Sachs about paying their bankers more.