Yoshihide Suga, has emerged as a strong contender to a longtime lieutenant of Japan’s Shinzo Abe as prime minister, an outcome that would extend the fiscal and monetary stimulus that defined Abe’s nearly eight years in office.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving premier, said on Friday i.e. 29th August, he was stepping down due to a worsening of a chronic illness, setting the stage for a leadership election within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
政治においては、その職に何日間、在職したかではなくて、何を成し遂げたかが問われるのだろうと思いますが、この７年８か月、国民の皆様にお約束した政策を実行するため、結果を出すために、一日一日、日々、全身全霊を傾けてまいりました。 pic.twitter.com/yvmFgdNVnJ
— 安倍晋三 (@AbeShinzo) August 25, 2020
While some other would-be successors have declared their intention to run, the 71-year-old Suga has said he doesn’t want the job. But such comments have been called into question by an aggressive media push in recent days that put him squarely in the public eye.
Sophia University political science professor Koichi Nakano said, “They are really going to try to get Suga to replace Abe and continue the Abe government without Abe.”
