Japan’s Suga faces make-or-break election year as coronavirus rages, Olympics loom
- With his support ratings in decline amid dissatisfaction with his government’s pandemic response, the prime minister faces a political reckoning
- Suga is vulnerable because he doesn’t have factional support within the Liberal Democratic Party, and needs public opinion on his side if he is to survive
Suga’s window to dissolve the House of Representatives for the general election is gradually closing – his current term as leader of the LDP concludes at the end of September and the four-year term for lower house members finishes on October 21.
Suga was highly popular at first, having endeared himself to the public as the pancake-eating son of a strawberry farmer from Akita Prefecture who unlike many of his fellow lawmakers does not hail from a political dynasty.
Trademark policies like investing in renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions and pressuring telecommunication firms to lower mobile phone fees were well received.
A news poll conducted just after Suga’s inauguration showed support for his cabinet at 66.4 per cent. Abe, who had been dogged by favouritism and money scandals, had a rating of 36.0 per cent before announcing his intention to step down.
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