No sweet honeymoon for Japan’s Suga, buffeted by coronavirus crisis and political scandals

Name: Japan PM Yoshihide Suga vows to do ‘whatever it takes’ to hold Tokyo Olympics next year
Uploaded: 2020-12-15T00:30:30.000Z
Duration: 1 min 54 s
Description: Japan PM Yoshihide Suga vows to do ‘whatever it takes’ to hold Tokyo Olympics next year

The new prime minister has seen his popularity levels plummet due to the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and controversies over his predecessor, Shinzo Abe

Analysts say that unless his administration gets the disease under control and quickly rolls out a vaccine, Suga might only last a year or so in the top job

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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks to reporters at his office in Tokyo on December 14. Photo: Kyodo

Julian Ryall

Published: 8:30am, 15 Dec 2020Updated: 10:41pm, 15 Dec 2020

Yoshihide Suga’s honeymoon did not last very long.

Previously Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Suga was in September effectively hand-picked by his predecessor as prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to carry on the latter’s policies. As recently as mid-November, the new premier posted a more than respectable support rate of 64 per cent in a public-opinion poll.

But the traditional popularity bump for an incoming leader has quickly dissipated, with Suga’s support contracting to marginally over 50 per cent by the first week of December.

And while he is facing questions on a number of delicate political matters that have called his judgment into question, the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is the primary cause for the public’s declining faith in his leadership skills.

The sense is that Suga needs to get the health crisis under control, stop sending mixed messages on how that is going to be achieved, and ensure an effective vaccine is quickly rolled out across the nation.

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Japan PM Yoshihide Suga vows to do ‘whatever it takes’ to hold Tokyo Olympics next year

If these do not happen, analysts suggest, Suga might be another Japanese leader who only lasts a year or so before he is cast aside by the public or his own party.