JAPAN ELECTS NEW PM
Ruling party LDP leader Suga wins easy victory in parliamentary vote yesterday
YOSHIHIDE Suga became Japan’s new prime minister yesterday, with the former chief cabinet secretary expected to stick closely to policies championed by Shinzo Abe during his record-breaking tenure.
Suga, 71, won an easy victory in a parliamentary vote, where his ruling Liberal Democratic Party holds a commanding majority.
He bowed deeply as lawmakers applauded his win, but made no immediate comment. He was not expected to speak until late yesterday, when he would give his first press conference as prime minister.
Suga’s new cabinet was announced shortly after the vote, with several ministers keeping
their jobs, including Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Finance Minister Taro Aso.
Abe’s brother Nobuo Kishi, who was adopted by his uncle as a child and carries his surname, is the new defence minister, replacing Taro Kono, who becomes administrative reform minister.
Suga is seen as a continuity candidate and has said his run was inspired by a desire to pursue Abe’s policies, although analysts
warned of challenges ahead.
“Tough issues are mounting before the Suga cabinet,” said Shinichi Nishikawa, a professor of political science at Meiji University in Tokyo.
“The coronavirus is the top priority to tackle. On the diplomatic front, there are many uncertain factors, including the United States presidential election.”
Abe formally resigned earlier yesterday along with his cabinet, ending his record run in office with a year left in his mandate.
He was forced out by a recurrence of ulcerative colitis, a bowel disease that has long plagued him.
Suga has spent decades in politics, and has a reputation for pushing government policies through a sometimes intractable bureaucracy.
His upbringing, as the son of a strawberry-farmer father and schoolteacher mother, sets him apart from Japan’s many blueblood political elites.
But while he has championed some measures intended to help rural areas like his hometown in northern Japan’s Akita, his political views remain something of a mystery.
He is viewed as more pragmatic than ideological. During his campaign spoke more about the need for administrative reforms than any grand guiding principles.
He had said kickstarting the economy, which was already in recession before the pandemic, would be a top priority, along with containing the virus, essential if the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics are to open as planned in July next year.