Yoshihide Suga

Yoshihide Suga (official portrait, 2020)

Yoshihide Suga ( Japanese 菅 義 偉, Suga Yoshihide ; born December 6, 1948 in Akinomiya, now Yuzawa , Akita Prefecture ) is a Japanese politician and since September 16, 2020 the 63rd Prime Minister of Japan . Suga is also chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and a member of the Shūgiin , the lower house of the national parliament , for the second constituency of Kanagawa . He was a member of the Koga faction until 2009 and has not belonged to any faction since thenat. From 2006 to 2007 he was interior minister and from August to September 2007 chairman of the election strategy commission of the LDP.

life and career

Suga was born on December 6, 1948 as the first of four children of the farmer Saburō Suga (1918-2010) in the village of Akinomiya (1955 to the city of Ogachi, since 2005 district of Akinomiya of the district-free Yuzawa) in the district of Ogachi, Akita Prefecture. He studied law at Hōsei University until 1973 and in 1975 became secretary to the deputy and later Minister of Economics Hikosaburō Okonogi . Starting in 1987, he was elected to the Yokohama City Council for two terms . In the 1996 Shūgiin election , he ran successfully for the LDP in the second constituency of Kanagawa, which includes the boroughs of Nishi , Minato and Kōnan , and has since been re-elected eight times. In the election of the LDP chairman in 1998 , he did not vote for the chairman of his faction, the Heisei Kenkyūkai chairman Keizō Obuchi , but for Seiroku Kajiyama . He then joined the Kōchikai .

In the reorganized third cabinet Koizumi Suga was under Heizō Takenaka Vice Minister in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication . In the first cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe , he rose to minister in this ministry in 2006; He was also given responsibility for reforming central government-local government relations and the privatization of the postal service . During the cabinet reshuffle in August 2007 , he was appointed chairman of the LDP's election strategy commission, one of the four most important party offices. In 2007 he voted again in the election of the LDP chairman against the candidate of his faction, Yasuo Fukuda , and instead for Tarō Asō from Ikōkai . The new party chairman Fukuda replaced Suga as chairman of the electoral strategy commission a month later by Makoto Koga .

In the 2009 Shūgiin election, which was devastating for the LDP , Suga won his constituency against the Democrat Kazuya Mimura with a lead of 548 votes, with Mimura moving into the Shūgiin via the South Kantō proportional representation . In September 2009 Suga left the Kōchikai to support the candidate Tarō Kōno together with other MPs elected for the first time in 1996 in the election of the LDP chairman . In the 2012 chairman election, Suga chose the winner Shinzō Abe and was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the LDP in September of that year.

Suga proclaiming the motto ( Nengō ) of the era of the new emperor Naruhito, Reiwa

When Shinzō Abe was re-elected Prime Minister in December 2012, he took Suga as Chief Cabinet Secretary in his second cabinet . Since then, he has been an integral part of the Abe government and, as of July 7, 2016, the longest-serving chief cabinet secretary. Under his leadership, the “Cabinet Office for Personnel Matters” was set up in 2014, partially replacing the personnel office previously responsible for the recruitment of senior civil servants and considerably expanding the government's control over personnel decisions within the authorities. Suga, apart from Abe, was considered the most influential member of the cabinet and was particularly known for his strategic skill in the allocation of officials and ministerial posts in order to avoid disagreements in the government.

On April 1, 2019, Suga announced the name of the new era accompanying Naruhito's accession to the throne , Reiwa . This earned him the nickname "Uncle Reiwa".

After he announced his candidacy for the election of the LDP chairman on September 2, 2020 after Abe's resignation , he prevailed on September 14, 2020 with 70% of the votes against Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba .

Term of office as prime minister

Suga announced his political agenda when he was elected, which included fighting the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and implementing further deregulation to revitalize the economy. He also reiterated his previous interest in consolidating regional banks and reducing cell phone charges in Japan. Shortly after his confirmation as the new prime minister by the Japanese parliament on September 16, 2020, he presented his cabinet . Suga took over eight ministers from his predecessor.

On June 15, 2021, Suga survived a motion of no confidence in the lower house of parliament. The opposition accused him of failing to fight the corona pandemic and, above all, complained that he was sticking to the postponed Olympic Games . A majority of MPs from his Liberal Democratic Party and from his smaller coalition partner Komeito voted against the motion of no confidence.

As a result of the persistently poor poll results, Suga announced on September 3, 2021 that he would withdraw his candidacy for the regular election to the LDP party chairmanship on September 26, 2021 and thus also step down from his post as Prime Minister. The favorite for his successor is Fumio Kishida , who was defeated by Suga a year earlier in the election for party chairmanship.

Memberships (selection)

• Nippon Kaigi
• “Young parliamentary group, longing for peace and mindful of national interests, advocating visits to the Yasukuni Shrine ” (平和 を 願 い 真 の 国 益 を 考 え 靖国神社 参 拝 を 支持 支持 す る 若 手 国会 議員 の 会, Heiwa o negai shinang no kaeokueki o kasuk -jinja sanpai o shiji suru wakate kokkai giin no kai )
• "Political Shinto Union" (神道 政治 連 盟, Shinto seiji renmei ; eng. "Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership")
• "Japanese-Korean Parliamentary Group " (日韓 議員 連 盟, Nikkan giin renmei )

Web links

Commons : Yoshihide Suga  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official Website (Japanese)
• Short biography on the website of the Japanese Cabinet (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 「田 舎 の 人」 菅 氏 は 地方 を 救 う の か ふ る さ と 納税 に 見 た 競争 、 恐怖 と 期待 と. In: Mainichi Shimbun . September 15, 2020, accessed September 21, 2020 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ nippon.com - Abe's Enforcer: Suga Yoshihide's Stabilizing Influence on the Cabinet , accessed March 1, 2019
3. ^ Chief Cabinet secretary is much more than top government spokesman. In: The Japan Times . May 18, 2015, accessed March 1, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Tomohiro Osaki, Sakura Murakami: Reiwa: Japan reveals name of new era ahead of Emperor's abdication . In: The Japan Times Online . April 1, 2019, ISSN  0447-5763 ( japantimes.co.jp [accessed October 18, 2019]).
5. ↑ Japan's designated Prime Minister Suga takes over the ruling party - derStandard.at. Retrieved September 16, 2020 (Austrian German). 
6. ↑ Satoshi Sugiyama: Japan's next leader: How Yoshihide Suga beat the odds to succeed Shinzo Abe. September 14, 2020, accessed September 14, 2020 (American English). 
7. ^ Suga vows to digitize government and push down mobile fees. Retrieved September 16, 2020 (UK English). 
8. ↑ hermesauto: Ministers in Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga's first Cabinet team. September 16, 2020, accessed on September 16, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Japan's Prime Minister Suga survives the vote of no confidence , Westdeutsche Zeitung, June 15, 2021.
10. ↑ Japan's Prime Minister Suga wants to resign , NTV, September 3, 2021.
11. ↑ Factbox potential candidates to become Japan's next prime minister , SwissInfo from September 3, 2021.
12. ↑ Isabel Reynolds, Emi Nobuhiro: Fumio Kishida, top contender to lead Japan, warns Taiwan is 'next big problem'. September 3, 2021, accessed September 5, 2021 (American English). 
13. ↑ koreajoongangdaily.joins.com - Abe's reshuffle promotes right-wingers , accessed March 1, 2019.
14. ↑ 党 総 裁 選 に ら み 動 き 加速 自 民 若 手 が 参 拝 支持 の 会( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ jcp.or.jp -自 民 閣僚 全員 が 「靖 国」 派 侵略 美化 ・ 改 憲 を 推進… (Japanese), accessed March 1, 2019