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TOKYO: On Monday (September 14), Japan’s ruling party elected Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga as its new leader, assuring him that he will replace Shinzo Abe as the country’s next prime minister.
Suga easily won the ballot, obtaining 377 of a total of 534 valid votes from legislators and regional representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party.
His rivals, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and PLD policy chief Fumio Kishida, lagged far behind.
Given the PLD’s legislative majority, Suga is expected to comfortably win a parliamentary vote on Wednesday and become prime minister, replacing Abe, who resigns for health reasons.
Suga thanked Abe and promised to go ahead with the reforms. Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, said last month that he would resign due to poor health, ending nearly eight years in office.
“I was born the eldest son of a farmer in Akita,” Suga said. “Without knowledge or blood ties, I launched myself into the world of politics, starting from scratch, and I have been able to become a leader of the PLD, with all its traditions and history.”
“I will dedicate everything to working for Japan and its citizens,” he added.
Suga has said that he will continue Abe’s signature “Abenomics” strategy of hyper-easy monetary policy, public spending and reforms, while juggling the problems of COVID-19 and an economy in recession, and facing longer-term problems like aging. of the population of Japan. and low birth rate.
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Ishiba, who is popular with the Japanese public but not so much within his own party, got only 68 votes, and Kishida, who was once considered Abe’s favorite successor, got 89.
Abe refused to publicly endorse any candidate.
BIG CHALLENGE
Japanese manufacturers were pessimistic for the fourteenth consecutive month in September, a Reuters poll showed, underscoring the enormous challenge facing the next leader.
Suga, whose résumé is short on diplomatic experience, faces geopolitical challenges such as establishing ties with the winner of the November 3 US presidential election and balancing concerns about China’s maritime aggressiveness with bilateral economic interdependence.
Speculation is growing that Suga will call snap elections for the lower house of parliament next month to increase his chances of winning a full three-year term as head of the PLD next year. The vote for the lower house is due to take place in late October 2021.
READ: Aging and Emptiness: The Hometown of Japan’s Next Prime Minister Highlights Future Challenges
The son of a strawberry farmer, Suga grew up in the Akita region of northern Japan, and the problems of rural areas suffering from depopulation are said to be among his main concerns.
He got his start in politics as a local assemblyman and since 2012 has held the key position of Chief Cabinet Secretary, serving as the main spokesman for the Abe government, coordinating policies and keeping bureaucrats in line.
He has the image of more of a behind-the-scenes operator than a front-line leader, but he rose in opinion polls after he announced his candidacy to succeed Abe. It won the support of the majority of the LDP factions, beating its rivals.
Not much is known about his personal ideology and, in general, he is not seen as a supporter of either the toughest or most reformist wings of the PLD.
