Suga takes a bow after being elected Japan’s prime minister

YOSHIHIDE SUGA was elected Japan’s new prime minister yesterday in a parliamentary vote, following the resignation of Shinzo Abe.

Mr Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, announced plans to step down due to ill health last month after nearly eight years at the helm.

Continuity is expected to be a key theme during the tenure of Mr Suga, 71, who rose through the ranks after loyally serving as Mr Abe’s right-hand man in the pivotal position of chief cabinet secretary since late 2012.

His ascension to prime minister came after he won 314 votes out of 462 in parliament’s lower house yesterday, just two days after a landslide victory in an election to become leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Mr Suga’s success in the leadership election virtually guaranteed that he would be voted prime minister, as the LDP has a comfortable majority in the lower house. Politicians applauded as Mr Suga bowed deeply in parliament but made no immediate comment after Tadamori Ōshima, lower house speaker, announced: “According to the results, our house has decided to name Yoshihide Suga prime minister.”

Mr Suga has pledged to pursue many of his predecessor’s policies, including his signature Abenomics economic strategy, and has reportedly prepared a “continuity” cabinet keeping around half of Mr Abe’s original line-up.

Covid and efforts to revive the economy will remain centre stage for Mr Suga, alongside foreign relations with the United States and China, plus the handling of the postponed Tokyo Olympics. Other issues likely to top the agenda for Mr Suga range from tackling Japan’s rapidly ageing population to streamlining old school bureaucracy and bringing it into the digital age.

Mitsuhiro Yuasa, portfolio manager for Strategic Japan Opportunities Fund at Eric Sturdza Investments, said: “We expect Suga to continue pushing Japan’s digitalisation and policies aimed at increasing the current birth rate.”

Mr Abe will stay on as a member of parliament, with some suggesting that he may later undertake diplomatic missions. He said he was ending his tenure with a sense of pride, adding: “I owe everything to the Japanese people.”