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TOKYO: Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, is the son of a farmer with a reputation for inscrutability who has been a key adviser to the government and an enforcer of policy.
The 71-year-old easily won elections for the office on Wednesday in parliament, where his ruling Liberal Democratic Party has a comfortable majority, replacing Shinzo Abe, who resigned for health reasons.
Suga’s election culminates a career that has seen him fill several key political roles, including most recently as chief cabinet secretary, a position that involves coordinating policies and controlling government agencies and the bureaucracy.
He has also been the face of the Abe government as its main spokesperson, defending decisions in daily press conferences, even in sometimes irritable exchanges with journalists.
While the role of chief cabinet secretary has in the past been a stepping stone to the prime minister’s office, Suga had regularly said that he was not interested in the top job.
But shortly after Abe announced in late August that he would resign due to health concerns, Suga emerged as the top choice to succeed him, with key LDP factions backing him.
Suga has earned a somewhat fearsome reputation for exercising his power to control Japan’s powerful and sprawling bureaucracy and help push government policies.
“People think I’m terribly scary, especially bureaucrats,” he said during a leadership debate.
“But I am very kind … to those who work seriously.”
Started from scratch
The son of a strawberry farmer and a school teacher, Suga grew up in rural Akita, northern Japan, and pursued his university studies after moving to Tokyo working in a factory.
He was elected to his first post in 1987 as a member of the municipal assembly in Yokohama, on the outskirts of Tokyo, and entered parliament in 1996.
He referenced his background in accepting the party’s nomination as leader, saying he “started from scratch.”
“With this background, I was able to become the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party with all its history and tradition,” he said.
“I will dedicate myself completely to Japan and the Japanese people.”
As Abe’s longtime sponsor, Suga pressured him to run for a second term despite his disastrous first run in office, which ended after just one year.
When Abe defied the odds and returned to power in 2012, he appointed Suga to the powerful post of Chief Cabinet Secretary, from which he is said to have helped push through several landmark Abe policies, including relaxing restrictions on foreign workers. .
Suga’s own political views are a mystery, although he has championed policies to help revitalize rural areas, as well as reduce the costs of mobile phones.
Experts say he is more pragmatic than ideological, and legislators from the political spectrum of the PLD see him as a neutral figure.
200 sit-ups a day
But his rather nondescript image was rebooted last year with the declaration of a new imperial era to mark Emperor Naruhito’s ascent to the throne.
It was Suga who unveiled the long-awaited name for the era: Reiwa. And the image of him holding the hand-drawn calligraphy for the name earned him the affectionate nickname “Uncle Reiwa.”
He has allowed only occasional glimpses of his personal life, with his wife and three children away from the spotlight.
But he has revealed in interviews that he closes his day with 100 sit-ups in the morning and 100 at night, and that he has a weakness for pancakes.
“Since I don’t drink any alcohol and I have said that I like sweets like pancakes, my image has changed a lot,” she recently lamented.
“But really, I want people to say, ‘It’s scary when it comes to your job.’
