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Who will take over Japan after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s sudden resignation? 71-year-old minister Yoshihide Suga has been singled out as a possible successor. The problem: he doesn’t care.
Japan’s outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a press conference in Tokyo on Friday.
In just over two weeks, on September 15, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will appoint a new leader, who will likely be elected a new prime minister, as the LDP has its own majority in parliament.
The party leader’s election follows the political bombshell dropped by Prime Minister Shinzo Abes on Friday, when he announced that he was resigning due to a chronic intestinal disease that had worsened.
Abe has ruled Japan since 2012 and, at the same time, is the longest serving prime minister in the country’s democratic history.
Whoever takes over the party is more or less guaranteed the post of prime minister until the 2021 elections. One name that has been mentioned as a strong candidate is 71-year-old Yoshihide Suga, minister with coordination responsibility, who is expected to continue the policy of economic stimulus that defined Abe’s time in power.
“We need to consider what we can do to prevent the economy from falling off a cliff,” Suga said recently in an interview about the conflict between economic growth and tighter restrictions during the crown crisis.
The fact is that Suga said that he is not interested in the job, but the statement is disputed.
Other possible candidates are current Defense Minister Taro Kono, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida. Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 39, is also popular with voters, but some consider him too young.
Abe declined to comment on possible successors during the press conference where he announced his resignation. He is expected to remain in office until the election of the party leader.
