Attending the Autumn Grand Festival at Yasukuni Shrine

On October 19th, I attended the Autumn Grand Festival at Yasukuni Shrine.

I was deeply moved by the address given by Chief Priest Otsuka.

As one who lives in a world where peace is taken for granted, I visited the shrine of peace to pay my respects to our ancestors and pray for Japan’s enduring peace.

Now, we also discussed cognitive warfare.

Cognitive warfare is an information strategy aimed at influencing people’s thoughts, emotions, and values to manipulate their judgments and actions. Evolving from traditional psychological warfare and information warfare, it repeatedly disseminates disinformation and deliberate misinformation via social media and the internet. Its goal is to sow confusion within specific individuals or societies from within and incite division. It represents a modern form of warfare applied not only in the military sphere but also in business and politics.

The more the internet develops, the more severe this cognitive warfare becomes, potentially triggering major incidents that could shake a nation to its core.

We now live in an era demanding each citizen make flawless judgments.

Let each of us act with conviction and responsibility.