Yabba Dabba Doo!: What Leaders Can Learn About Speeches from the Japanese Prime Minister

President Biden ruffled feathers this week among key allies India and Japan with a gaffe in which he lumped them alongside Russia and China as “xenophobic countries,” citing their restrictive immigration policies since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The White House has since taken pains to walk back the insult, which was especially ill-timed considering that it came a few weeks on the heels of a stirring speech from Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in a joint session to Congress that may just have helped seal the deal on perhaps the President’s top legislative priority this year – a $91 billion emergency aid package that includes military assistance to U.S. allies including Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

The funding, stymied in Congress since August, finally passed on a bipartisan basis. As the House of Representatives debated the measure, many on both sides of the aisle quoted from Kishida’s recent speech and its full-throated endorsement of American engagement around the world: “The leadership of the United States is indispensable.”

In a time of toxic partisanship, there’s not much that can bring both parties together in common cause. It may very well take the gravitas of an outsider to break through. When retiring members of Congress were recently asked by the New York Times what “perks” they’ll most look back on fondly, Republican Representative Larry Buchson of Indiana reminisced, “ You get to go on some Congressional trips. When you’re sitting across from the Prime Minister of Japan, that’s pretty cool.”

Kishida brought that unique gravitas in spades to his carefully crafted address, which lawmakers like Delaware Senator Chris Coons hailed as “heartfelt” and laying “the groundwork for future collaboration on everything from countering illiberal regimes to exploring opportunities in artificial intelligence and outer space.”

How did he do it?

Understanding his critics. He gracefully called it “a citadel of democracy,” but Kishida was actually walking into a lion’s den. As the world holds its breath awaiting the verdict on whether or not America will return Donald Trump to the Oval Office, the 66-year-old Japanese leader was deeply mindful of the “America First” undercurrent sure to meet any high-minded rhetoric lecturing American legislators about their responsibilities to maintaining the post-World War II global order.

Many Republican lawmakers are torn between their party’s traditional Reagan-era stance of maintaining a strong defense against communism and terrorism – and towing the party line under Trump, who largely views NATO as an example of the U.S. allowing “free riders” to take advantage of American largesse. Kishida used his personal story and history with America to help lawmakers visualize the enduring relationship between the two countries.

Storytelling. Many speech consultants advise speakers to quickly jump to their point in our era of plummeting attention spans. But Kishida took his time in building his case for the enduring need for American leadership. A “bilateral alliance” is a difficult concept to visualize – Kishida made it concrete by talking about his memories of attending elementary school in Queens. He waxed nostalgic about rooting for the Yankees (to the boos of the Massachusetts delegation) and likely made history by entering “The Flintstones” into the Congressional record, noting his love of Saturday morning cartoons and the fact that he could never figure out exactly how to translate “Yabba dabba doo!”

By that point, he had charmed even the hard-liners in both parties. With all the business he needed to tend to in his speech, I have no doubt that many advisors would have advised him to cut his lengthy odes to the pleasures of Coney Island hot dogs and the New York City subway. Fortunately, Kishida is said to have worked with former Reagan speechwriter Landon Parvis, who likely both informed and absorbed many of the Gipper’s lessons about the power of humor in disarming opponents.

Landing the key message. Ultimately, Kishida had two key goals with his speech – to urge the U.S. to reject isolationism in favor of its traditional leadership role and convey solidarity in the face of myriad conflicts.

His speech should be studied as a masterclass in appealing to a hostile audience. Instead of marching into their workplace and accusing Republican lawmakers of abandoning their allies, he told them that he sensed “an undercurrent of self-doubt” about the role of America in the world in the 21st century and stated that the United States isn’t alone in sharing its “heavy burden.” He nodded to the frustrations of Americans “who feel the loneliness and exhaustion of being the country that has upheld the international order almost singlehandedly.”

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We’re a long way politically from the days when President Obama’s historic 2016 trip to Kishida’s native Hiroshima where he hugged a weeping 79-year-old survivor of the Enola Gay bombing. A moment stirring enough to convince a cynic that humanity’s long-term trajectory could still bend toward reconciliation.

But we saw another glimpse of that hope in the House chamber last month, as the Prime Minister of our enemy in World War II gave a passionate case for the crucial role of American leadership in the world. Kishida gave what could prove to be one of the most consequential speeches of the 2020s.