Yoshihide Suga, who survived only one year, what is your evaluation of the prime minister’s term?

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who will step down on the 4th of next month after about a year in office, will step down from his post amid criticism from public opinion. Prime Minister Suga, who took office on September 16 last year following former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, received high support in the early 60s of his term. However, recently, the approval rating has fallen to the 20% level due to poor response to COVID-19, suspicion of hospitality of the eldest son to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and lack of communication with citizens.

Prime Minister Suga held a final press conference at the prime minister’s residence in Tokyo on the 28th, the day before the election of the LDP leader, and expressed his thoughts on his first year in office. Regarding the success of the U.S.-Japan-Australia summit, he praised himself, saying, “I have suggested a course that Japan should take.” Noting the fact that Japan has surpassed the US vaccination rate, Japan announced that it would lift the state of emergency and priority measures for COVID-19 across Japan on the 30th.

However, the evaluation of citizens and the media is cold. Koji Nakakita, a political science professor at Hitotsubashi University, said, “Prime Minister Suga would have wanted to continue the struggling travel project (a policy to encourage domestic travel) that he had been working hard since his days as chief cabinet secretary. I think he was watching,” he told NHK. Prime Minister Suga continued the go-to-travel project following Abe’s cabinet, and added Tokyo to the target list in October last year. However, since November, the daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has surged to 1,000, facing a headwind.

Despite the spread of COVID-19, Prime Minister Suga also pushed ahead with hosting the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, aiming to increase approval ratings. Ignoring public opinion on postponement and cancellation, the Olympics, which started in July, and the Paralympics, which took place next month, were played without spectators. Prime Minister Suga’s approval rating fell to 20% in August, despite some achievements, such as the Japanese team winning the most gold medals in history at the Tokyo Olympics and the Olympics being completed relatively safely.

Experts analyzed that Prime Minister Suga had moved away from public opinion by focusing on achieving results by achieving pre-set goals without properly considering the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The Mainichi Shimbun reported on the 29th that “Prime Minister Suga pursued ‘politics of individual opinions’ and ‘unshakable politics’ by setting specific goals and obsessing over results.” Professor Nakakita also evaluated that Prime Minister Suga mentioned only the achievement rate of targets related to figures such as the vaccination rate at a press conference related to COVID-19, but did not create a sense of solidarity to ‘let’s overcome the crisis together’.

There are also positive reviews about Prime Minister Suga’s diplomatic performance. The Asahi Shimbun analyzed in an editorial that Prime Minister Suga strengthened his alliance with the United States, creating a shape to further contain China. Prime Minister Suga was the first president to visit the White House in April since US President Joe Biden took office. However, Professor Nakakita said that Prime Minister Suga had not made significant progress in strengthening the alliance with the United States.

Cold relations with Korea continued throughout Suga’s cabinet. Prime Minister Suga never held a summit meeting with President Moon Jae-in during his tenure. The Suga Cabinet maintained the existing Japanese position that ‘all issues were resolved through the Korea-Japan Claims Agreement’ on the issues of forced labor and comfort women victims during the Japanese colonial period. They even made offerings to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals are enshrined. However, unlike the Abe administration, it did not provoke South Korea through trade retaliation measures.

The ‘discomfort’ characteristic that has been maintained since the time of the chief cabinet secretary continued. Prime Minister Suga concluded the press conference by saying, “I don’t have to answer you,” when a reporter asked about the Abe cabinet’s ‘Kake Gakuen scandal’ in 2019, when he was chief cabinet secretary. Even during his tenure as prime minister, he was ignorant of raising issues toward him. Based on this, ‘The Goat’s Letter’ (a Japanese poem about a white goat eating a letter from a black goat without reading it and thus unable to communicate) and ‘Monkey Sculpture’ (a monkey sculpture with its eyes, mouth and ears covered) There were also comments. At the last press conference on the 28th, he did not immediately answer questions such as the reason for refusing the opposition party’s request to convene a temporary National Assembly or the background of his resignation as prime minister.

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His achievements include promoting the digitalization of the administrative system and launching the Digital Office on the 1st. Other achievements of the Suga Cabinet include lowering mobile phone rates and preparing mid- and long-term energy plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

At the press conference, when asked about his opinion on whether the prime minister would change again after a year, Prime Minister Suga said, “Diplomatic credibility, continuity and consistency are important, but I don’t think it is good to change the prime minister after one year. ” he replied. As a plan after retirement, he announced that he would run for office in the second ward of Kanagawa, his constituency, during the House of Representatives election, and that he would continue his political activities as a member of the National Assembly.