Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday said he will not run for his re-election as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, The Guardian reported. This effectively means that he will soon step down as the prime minister, a post that he has held for barely one year.
The party’s leadership election will be held on September 29. It comes amid growing discontent against Suga’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The battle against the coronavirus takes a vast amount of energy and I don’t feel it is possible to carry on with that and fight the upcoming election for the party leadership,” Suga told reporters at a press conference.
Japan is currently fighting to control the rise in infection in its fifth and largest coronavirus wave, which is driven by the Delta variant, reported Reuters. Most of the country is under a state of emergency, which will continue till September 12.
The country had recorded an all-time high of 25,892 Covid-19 cases on August 20, according to John Hopkins University. So far, Japan has reported 15,11,522 new coronavirus cases and 16,151 deaths.
Earlier in the day, Toshihiro Nikai, the party’s general secretary, too had said that Suga wanted to focus on taking measures to control the spread of the coronavirus disease, reported AFP. “Honestly, I’m surprised,” Nikai added. “It’s truly regrettable. He did his best but after careful consideration, he made this decision.”
Suga, who replaced Shinzo Abe as the prime minister in September 2020, has been facing criticism for his handling of the pandemic. His Cabinet’s approval rating fell by 4.1 points to an all-time low of 31.8%, according to a poll conducted Kyodo news agency in August.
The poll showed that 65.1% of the public in Japan did not want Suga to continue as the prime minister. Natsuo Yamaguchi, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party’s coalition partner, had acknowledged that the the public’s “dissatisfaction with the [government’s] coronavirus response” led to the drop in the ratings.
Suga was earlier expected to seek re-election as the party’s leader. The country’s general Assembly elections are also expected to be held before the end of November, with October 17 being a likely date. As the Liberal Democratic Party dominates the Parliament, it is almost certain that the party’s leader will become the next prime minister.
Suga’s declared rival for the party president’s post, Fumio Kishida, has promised to toughen pandemic policies, reported Bloomberg. Kishida, a former foreign minister, has also said he will strengthen the party by appointing younger executives.
Meanwhile, futures on Japan’s stock market index Nikkei 225 gained following reports of Suga’s stepping down. As of 9.24 am (Indian time), the index was up by 1.81% to 29,060.58 points.
Suga, the son of a strawberry farmer, had won the leadership contest of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in September 2020 by securing 377 out of 534 votes. Before becoming the prime minister, he had served as the chief cabinet secretary under Abe between 2012 and 2020.
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