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Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attends an extraordinary session in the upper house of parliament on Thursday, September 17, 2020, in Tokyo. Suga began his first full day in office on Thursday, determined to push through reforms for the people, and said he is already trying. (AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko)
TOKYO – Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, began his first full day in office on Thursday determined to push for popular reforms.
“I am determined to work hard for the people and get results so that we can live up to their expectations,” Suga told reporters as he entered the prime minister’s office.
Suga was formally chosen on Wednesday to replace Shinzo Abe, who announced last month that he planned to resign due to health problems.
While Suga won the backing of other ruling party lawmakers by promising to carry out Abe’s policies and work on Abe’s unfinished goals, he’s also pushing for some policy changes.
In an Abe game, Suga said that he will interrupt the parties to see the cherry blossoms. Abe was accused of using taxpayer money to entertain voters at the annual meeting.
Suga told reporters Thursday that there will no longer be a budget for such events. Suga did not say if he planned to investigate whether the cherry blossom festival funds have been properly managed in the past.
He also pledged to accelerate Japan’s lagging digital transformation and appointed a special minister to promote digitization in education, healthcare and business. Suga has also campaigned to cut cell phone rates and said he will seek further cost reductions.
Unlike Abe, who set out big goals like constitutional revisions, Suga seems willing to take a more populist approach to addressing people’s everyday concerns, analysts said.
“Sir. Suga aims for a little success,” said political analyst Atsuo Ito on a TBS television show. “He was researching things that many people believe are not correct and need to be changed.”
Some members of Suga’s cabinet said they will follow their leader’s example. Administrative Reform Minister Taro Kono said he will immediately launch a hotline for people to report problems.
Abe’s government had been criticized for appearing distant and not listening to citizens’ concerns.
Suga said his priorities are to fight the coronavirus and reverse an economy hit by the pandemic. She is also expected to continue Abe’s economic and diplomatic stance.
As a self-made politician born the son of a farmer, Suga has opposed hereditary politics and factionalism within his party and has made systemic reforms one of his main political goals.
He said he will tear down bureaucratic barriers and remove vested interests that stand in the way of reforms, while listening to the voices of ordinary people to solve problems that do not serve their interests.
Suga’s cabinet recorded a support rating of 64% in a Mainichi newspaper poll published on Thursday, surpassing the 52% support Abe had at the start of his administration in 2012.
Respondents cited expectations for Suga’s policies, as well as continuity and his personality for his support, seemingly welcoming his reformist promises and background as a self-made politician from a rural farming village, Mainichi said.
The telephone survey of 1,025 people 18 and older was conducted early Thursday, the newspaper said. It did not provide margin of error.
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