[ad_1]
Of: TT
Published:
Photo: Eugene Hoshiko / poolfoto via AP / TT
Yoshihide Suga takes over as Prime Minister and is the center of attention after Shinzo Abe.
He is the son of the northern farmer who has pulled the strings in the power scenes.
Yoshihide Suga has long been rehearsing for the lead role in Japanese politics, but the 71-year-old will need to quickly convince the audience.
The working day begins with Yoshihide Suga reading all the major newspapers in Japan. Then you do 100 sit-ups, then you walk 40 minutes, and then you take a busy day. Before going to bed in the Parliament house, there will be another 100 sit-ups, he said in an interview with Nikkei last year.
In a debate before the election of the party leader, Suga was asked what is the most common prejudice about him.
– People think I’m scared, but I’m very kind to those who do their job well, he replied, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Talk in train stations
As the son of a farmer who grew up on a strawberry farm in Akita prefecture in northern Japan, Yoshihide Suga had a long way to go on the highest echelons of politics in Tokyo. And it started at the base.
After school, he took a job at a cardboard factory in the capital before opening his eyes to politics. Suga began giving speeches outside train stations, knocking on tens of thousands of doors for campaign purposes, and handing out questionnaires to get a general idea of what people thought was important.
He first sat in the Yokohama City Council (1987) and then in the Japanese Parliament (1996). Through several different ministerial positions, he became Shinzo Abe’s right-hand man during his time as Prime Minister, who led through important reform packages in tough negotiations in secret.
I have to play police
Yoshihide Suga is described more as a pragmatist than an ideologue. In school he was a good skier, runner, and baseball player, but no longer an actor.
“He was always quite rigid,” his schoolmate Masashi Yuri told Reuters.
He adds that therefore Suga generally had to perform police and similar functions.
The next elections are scheduled for next year, but new elections are expected to be held earlier. Then it is Suga, 71, who will be the name of the liberal Democratic cartel.
Published:
