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TOKYO: Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga officially declared on Wednesday (September 2) that he would run for the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a race that has a high chance of winning to become the next Prime Minister.
In a briefing, Suga said he wanted to run to avoid a political vacuum as the world’s third-largest economy grapples with the impact of the pandemic.
“I decided to participate in the race for the leadership of the PLD after deeply reflecting on what I can do as a politician and a member of the Abe administration,” Suga said at a briefing.
The party leader will take over as prime minister given the majority of the PLD in the lower house of parliament.
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He said he will “maintain and push” the “Abenomics” stimulus policies pursued by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe if he became the next prime minister.
Suga added that he would maintain the kind of relationship the government has had with the Bank of Japan under Abe’s administration.
Abe announced his decision to resign last week, citing poor health.
His main competitors for the top job are likely to be former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, but Suga’s position seems solid.
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It has won the backing of five of the seven factions of the PLD, public broadcaster NHK and others reported.
The party decided Tuesday to hold a shortened election with just members of parliament and three votes from each of the 47 prefectures, an advantage for Suga. The election will be on September 14.
Many chapters of the party will poll rank-and-file members to decide how to allocate their three votes, but experts say this is unlikely to change the momentum that is building for Suga if members of all five factions back him.
But Ishiba is by far the most popular with the public and has been in a media blitz, appearing on various television shows in recent days.
“During Abenomics, stocks were up, the yen was weak and it generated unprecedented profits for companies – that’s something to be thankful for,” Ishiba said on Fuji TV on Wednesday when asked how it would improve the lives of workers in low income and the unemployed.
“But what do we do with the dark side of that? That’s the biggest question in the post-Abe era,” he said.
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In addition to inheriting an economy amid its worst recession since World War II, Abe’s successor will have to try to ensure that next year’s Olympics, already delayed a year by the new coronavirus, go ahead as planned. .
In recent months, Abe had seen his support drop to one of the lowest levels since he assumed power in December 2012 due to growing discontent among voters with his handling of the coronavirus and scandals among LDP members.
“There are various criticisms of the Abe administration, and we must work on each issue, listening to the voices of the people seriously so as not to lose public trust,” Suga said at one of his twice-daily press conferences as a government spokesman. . .
