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Yoshihide Suga took over as Japan’s first new prime minister in nearly eight years on Wednesday, replacing the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who resigned citing health concerns.
Suga, 71, was sworn in by Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace after parliament chose him as prime minister.
Suga was Abe’s chief cabinet secretary and the government’s chief spokesman. He is now committed to pursuing the key policies of his predecessor, including his efforts to revive the economy and revise Japan’s post-war constitution, which restricts the use of its military.
“Reviving the economy remains the administration’s top priority,” Suga told reporters at a press conference after becoming prime minister.
But in an earlier briefing on Monday, Suga said that he envisioned a society in which the Japanese first help themselves and each other before accepting help from the government. Those comments drew some criticism that the Suga administration could turn its back on the poor and vulnerable in society.
Suga also promises to keep the alliance with the United States as the cornerstone of Japan’s foreign policy.
He is taking office at a time when Japan is managing the coronavirus outbreak and planning the Tokyo Olympics that were delayed due to the pandemic. Japan also faces a difficult security environment and is increasingly vulnerable to missiles from North Korea and China.
He has kept key cabinet members in place, with a few minor changes. “We will create a cabinet that works for the people,” Suga said.
Continuity weighs heavily on Japanese minds as, before Abe’s record tenure, the country went through six prime ministers in six years. That included a one-year tenure by Abe that was interrupted by the same chronic intestinal disease that he says has forced him to retire now.
On Monday, after being elected to head the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Suga introduced himself to journalists as the eldest son of farmers in Akita prefecture. Japan’s Kyodo news service reported that his father also worked on railways in Manchukuo, a puppet state of the Japanese Empire in northeast China before and during World War II.
Without being born with ties to power, Suga said, he had to “jump into politics and start from scratch.”
After a couple of jobs, including at a cardboard factory and a fish market, he became secretary to a legislator and later an assemblyman for the port city of Yokohama.
By contrast, Abe, 65, was a blue-blooded politician and grandson of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi.
“As a politician, I don’t think his humble origins are a problem right now,” Shihoko Goto, a Japan expert at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, said of Suga. “It’s a consummate political operation, so he should be able to continue to gain support for himself.”
Suga does not belong to any of the powerful factions within the Liberal Democratic Party, which he has said has “damaging effects.” However, the main factions eventually lined up behind him, leading to his selection as Abe’s successor.
Suga is largely seen as an effective politician, if not very charismatic. As chief cabinet secretary, Suga kept the bureaucrats in Kasumigaseki, the Tokyo district that houses Japan’s ministries, at bay.
And as the government’s chief spokesman, he kept the press in check, rejecting journalists’ questions about a series of cronyism scandals that plagued Abe.
“We must correct what we find objectively wrong,” he replied laconically this week when reporters asked about the controversies.
He has also hinted at new initiatives. She has expressed her willingness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and solve the problem of Japanese citizens kidnapped by that country. She has spoken of plans to launch a government agency to digitize the notoriously paper-bound workflow of the bureaucracy.
Now you need to show that you have the support of the public by winning a general election. By law, that vote must take place before September 2021. Taking it earlier could give you a quick political boost, but the current epidemic could make it difficult.
Suga faces the task of reversing difficult long-term trends for Japan. Abe was only able to achieve modest economic growth after decades of stagnation. Abe’s progress in building the military could not stop the country’s eclipse by China as Asia’s dominant military power.
Some observers question whether Suga or any Japanese leader can achieve robust economic growth in a country struggling with massive public debt and a rapidly shrinking and aging population.
Some experts propose a “post-growth” model in which Japan abandons its quest for gross domestic product figures, bullet trains and aircraft carriers, and instead emphasizes quality of life and environmental sustainability. But Suga and Abe are clearly not fans of this approach.
Also, said Goto of the Wilson Center, while many Japanese may not be happy with Japan’s current economic malaise, they look at other countries and realize that “it is actually much better than many alternatives out there, so there are many support to stay the course. “
Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report from Tokyo.
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