Suga surprisingly announced on Friday that he would not stand for the election of the new chairmanship of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which is planned for the end of this month. This should also mean the end of his term as head of government of the country.
Because of the parliamentary majority of the LDP, the party chairman usually also takes on the office of prime minister. “Voting and dealing with the corona pandemic requires a great deal of effort,” Suga told journalists on Friday. His approval ratings had recently dropped to below 30 percent. News of his withdrawal hit Japan’s center of political power like a bomb. On the Tokyo stock exchange, it caused prices to rise.
Ex-Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (64) has already announced that he will run for the office of party chairman – and thus de facto for the successor as head of government. He had already stood in the election for the successor to the resigned party and government leader Shinzo Abe last year. Instead, the party lifted Suga into office. Always reserved and calm, Kishida has his own inner-party power group and is liked in the party, but despite his experience as a top diplomat, he has not yet been considered a strong candidate for the party leadership. So far it has not aroused much enthusiasm among the people either.
In addition to him, the right-wing conservative Sanae Takaichi, who also belonged to Abe’s cabinet, has expressed interest in running for the highest office. The name of the former foreign minister and Taro Kono, who is currently responsible for the corona vaccination campaign, is also circulating. Political observers in Japan expect the LDP to lose seats in the elections for the mighty lower house of parliament, which may be coming up in October. However, given the fragmentation of the opposition camp and the general political apathy among voters, many observers believe it is unlikely that she will lose the majority in the lower house along with her smaller coalition partner Komeito.
The 72-year-old Suga had only taken office a year ago as the successor to Abe, who suddenly resigned. He had served the right-wing conservative for years as the right-hand man in the position of government spokesman. As Japan’s oldest prime minister for around 30 years, Suga officially ends Abe’s remaining term as LDP chairman – and thus as head of government – which ends on September 30th. At the beginning he still achieved high approval ratings of around 70 percent. But Suga’s handling of the corona pandemic and the vaccination campaign, which got off to a late start, caused his popularity to fall sharply among the people. The new infections recently rose to new highs, although Suga repeatedly extended and expanded the state of emergency. Experts repeatedly asked him to take stronger measures to contain the pandemic, but so far in vain.
