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]]>Suga, who took over after Shinzo Abe resigned last September, citing ill health, has seen his support ratings sink to below 30% as the nation struggles with its worst wave of COVID-19 infections ahead of a general election this year.
Suga’s decision on Friday to not run in a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) election in September means the party will choose a new leader, who will become prime minister.
Before Abe – Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, with an eight-year tenure – the country had gone through six prime ministers in as many years, including Abe’s own troubled first one-year tenure.
Japan’s Nikkei average futures jumped 2% immediately after media reports that Suga would not run, while the broader Topix Index extended its gains and hit its highest levels since 1991 following the news.
“I want to focus on coronavirus response, so I told the LDP executive meeting that I’ve decided not to run in the party leadership race,” Suga told reporters.
“There’s immense energy needed to tackle both coronavirus response and preparation for the leadership race,” he added. “I judged that I cannot juggle both and I should concentrate on either of them.”
Suga addressed a scrum of journalists for less than two minutes at his office and left the venue amid shouts for more explanation. He said he would hold a news conference as early as next week.
The address ended a rollercoaster week in which Suga pulled out all the stops to save his job, from suggestions he would sack his long-term ally as party secretary general, to plans to call a snap election and reshuffle party executive and his cabinet.
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]]>The post Japan marks the 76th anniversary of its World War II surrender appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>“We will commit to our pledge to never repeat the tragedy of the war,” he said in his first speech at the event since becoming prime minister.
Suga did not offer an apology to the Asian victims of Japanese aggression across the region in the first half of the 20th century – a precedence set by his predecessor Shinzo Abe, who was frequently accused of trying to whitewash his country’s brutal past.
In a largely domestic-focused speech, Suga listed damage inflicted on Japan and its people, including the U.S. atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities and the fierce battle of Okinawa, and mourned for them.
Emperor Naruhito, in contrast, expressed “deep remorse” over his country’s wartime actions in a carefully nuanced speech that followed the footsteps of his father, who devoted his 30-year career to making amends for a war fought in the name of Hirohito, the current emperor’s grandfather. Naruhito also said he hoped that people can put their hearts together to overcome the difficulty of the pandemic while seeking happiness and peace for all.
Amid Tokyo’s surging coronavirus infections, about 200 participants, reduced from about 6,000 before the pandemic, mourned for the dead with a minute of silence. Masks were required, and there was no singing of the national anthem.
Suga vowed to cooperate with the international community in tackling global issues under “proactive pacifism,” a vision that Abe promoted to allow Japan to play a greater military role in international conflicts.
Beginning 2013, Abe stopped acknowledging Japan’s wartime hostilities or apologize in his Aug. 15 speeches, scrapping a nearly 20-year tradition that began with the 1995 apology of Socialist leader Tomiichi Murayama.
On Sunday, before attending the ceremony at Tokyo’s Budokan hall, Suga laid flowers at a nearby national cemetery for unknown soldiers. While Suga stayed away from controversial Yasukuni shrine, he did send a religious offering to the shrine, Japanese media reported.
Victims of Japanese actions during the first half of the 20th century, especially the Koreas and China, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism because it honors convicted war criminals among about 2.5 million war dead.
Abe, who stepped down as prime minister last year, prayed at the shrine Sunday, and so did three other members of Suga’s Cabinet. Two other ministers visited the shrine Friday.
The visits sparked criticism from China and South Korea.
On Sunday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed “deep disappointment and regret” over the Japanese leaders’ visits and offerings to the shrine, saying it “beautifies Japan’s past war of aggression” and honors “war criminals.” It urged them to show “sincere remorse through action” so that the countries could develop “future-oriented ties.”
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]]>The post Japan Considering To Pick New Prime Minister To Succeed Shinzo Abe appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>According to public broadcaster NHK, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to decide when and how to choose its next leader in a General Council meeting on September 1.
Meanwhile, LDP top officials are making final arrangements to have its members in both houses of the Diet meet around September 13-15 to choose the party’s president. Then, the party plans to call an extraordinary parliamentary session to elect the new prime minister on September 17, according to the report.
Currently, LDP Policy Research Council Chairperson Fumio Kishida and former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba have shown interest in running in the party’s presidential race. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is also seen as a potential candidate.
– ANI
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