Kimi Onoda, a politician of Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party who came into the spotlight in 2025 after being appointed to multiple key government roles, recently made an unusual appeal to X users and web news outlets. In the aftermath of an unassuming post she made while playing mobile RPG Fate/Grand Order, she published a lengthy post asking people to stop tying her gaming and anime-related hobbies to her political positions.
Onoda carries a total of eight minister titles, overseeing everything from Japan’s economic security and foreign-resident coexistence to science, space, AI, intellectual property, and the “Cool Japan” cultural strategy. It’s this last part in particular that’s given her a lot of attention in online circles: considering the Cool Japan initiative is meant to develop and popularize Japanese content like anime, games and manga, many people have had strong reactions (positive and negative) to the new person in charge being very openly “otaku.” Onoda is known to talk about her passion for anime and games in non-official settings, and netizens have even dug up details like her participation in the domestic doujinshi event Comiket and previous job as a producer of Hetalia series CD dramas.
The recent uproar originates from a post made by Onoda on her personal X account. In the late hours of December 7, she celebrated clearing the latest chapter of Fate/Grand Order in time and thanked fellow players of the game for helping her out when she got stuck. The post immediately blew up, and local web news outlets started running pieces pointing out that Japan’s economic security minister was grinding FGO at odd hours and had a long history of tweeting about the game.
Not thrilled to see this, Onoda posted a harshly worded reply directly under one of the articles on X, commenting, “Come on, stop turning this into news. This is an unofficial personal account for my followers. What are you thinking taking my posts and photos without permission and blasting them publicly?”
She followed up with a long explanation about how she draws a distinct line between her hobbies and politics, commenting that liking the same games or anime as someone has nothing to do with sharing their political beliefs. As an example, she jokes about being able to passionately talk about the games she loves with lawmakers from totally different parties whose policies she disagrees with.
On the other hand, Onoda also says she gets why some people can’t separate the two. Because of that, she apparently tries not to gush about her hobbies during official occasions, anticipating that people who dislike her politically will feel irked if she endorses titles they personally hold dear. At the same time, she denounces people who suggest she can’t be a “real” fan of certain works because her policies are (perceived as) contradictory to the themes or messages of those stories.
“I’m just saying I like what I like, and I have no desire for people who like the same things to also like me as an individual. I believe hobbies and work are separate, so I wish people would stop with this weird line of thinking like Let’s support Onoda because she’s an otaku.”
In closing, the minister asked people who are unhappy about her non-work-related ramblings to block her on X “for their own peace of mind.”
