: Shinzo Abe’s Successor Will Inherit a Stricken Economy and Unfinished Business. What’s Next for Japan? #WorldNEWS It’s not the exit that Shinzo Abe had planned. Japan’s longest-serving

Shinzo Abe’s Successor Will Inherit a Stricken Economy and Unfinished Business. What’s Next for Japan? #WorldNEWS
It’s not the exit that Shinzo Abe had planned. Japan’s longest-serving prime minister steps down next week owing to a recurrence of colitis, a chronic intestinal disease. He leaves a dire approval rating, the nation’s pacifist constitution unreformed and its economy stricken from the coronavirus pandemic, which also forced the postponement — perhaps cancelation — of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Those Games had been pegged as Abe’s glorious swansong — Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rules meant he only had a year left in charge. He instead leaves a troubled inheritance. Abe’s successor must deal with the coronavirus rendering the Abenomics economic rejuvenation policy moribund, an increasingly bellicose China and North Korea, a capricious partner in the White House and a ticking demographic time bomb. There won’t be much of a honeymoon.

The smart money is on Abe’s top aide taking over the reins. Yoshihide Suga served as Abe’s Chief Cabinet Secretary—the equivalent of a White House chief-of-staff, communications director and vice-president rolled into one—for almost eight years. He is expected to be elected by the LDP on Sept. 14 after wooing competing factions as the stable, continuity candidate. (Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and ex-Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida are also running but outside bets. ) The LDP, with its coalition partner, controls a majority in the legislature, meaning whomever the party picks is all but assured to be prime minister.
Who is Yoshihide Suga?
Suga, 71, the son of a strawberry farmer in the agrarian hamlet of Akinomiya in frozen northern Akita prefecture, lacks the political pedigree of Abe, who’s the grandson of a prime minister and son of a former foreign minister. But Suga has built a reputation as a tenacious, details-orientated workaholic, who still does 100 sit-ups every day and doesn’t touch alcohol. A childhood friend told the Wall Street Journal that Suga was a talented sumo wrestler in his youth.
An unabashed curmudgeon, especially with the press, he is more technocrat than visionary. However, he took a leading role pushing through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact after the U. S. withdrew under Trump. Most of all, Suga has the reputation as a wily, skillful political operator behind many of Abe’s policy successes. “Suga is a major reason why all Abe stayed in power so long,” says Jeffrey Kingston, professor of Japanese studies at Temple University in Tokyo.
If picked to be prime minister, he will have to make tough decisions straight away. Japan has general elections due by October 2021, so Suga must choose whether to serve as caretaker until then—or exploit current disorder in the opposition ranks and call the ballot early to cement his mandate.