Suga Yoshihide has completed his first full week as Japan's prime minister. His schedule this week included both his first calls with foreign leaders and his first domestic trip at prime minister (to Fukushima prefecture). It is also possible to begin identifying certain patterns to his days, perhaps even certain officials or groups of officials …
Tag: Suga Yoshihide
Heritage Foundation, 16 September
On 16 September, the day that Suga Yoshihide was officially chosen by the Diet as Japan's ninety-ninth prime minister, I joined the Brookings Institution's Mireya Solis and the RAND Corporation's Jeffrey Hornung, moderated by Heritage's Bruce Klingner, for a conversation about what to expect from the Suga administration.This event really was a conversation among friends. …
The Week of 13 September 2020
Suga Yoshihide was elected as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in an overwhelming victory on 14 September. Two days later, he was selected by the Diet as Japan's ninety-ninth prime minister, at which point a new cabinet of twenty - two larger than the cabinet it replaced - was officially sworn into office.Not …
The LDP’s reformists continue to battle family politics
Surprisingly, given the howls of protest from within the LDP that greeted Suga Yoshihide's proposal to include a ban on hereditary candidates in the party's election manifesto, the LDP appears ready to include restrictions on political inheritances in the manifesto after Suga met with Koga Makoto, the LDP's chief elections strategist, and Ibuki Bunmei, former …
Continue reading The LDP’s reformists continue to battle family politics
Combating Botchan rule
The Japanese political establishment is debating how to combat an infestation that has penetrated Nagata-cho and is allegedly gnawing away at the foundations of Japanese democracy.I'm speaking, of course, of Japan's hereditary politicians, who constitute roughly a quarter of the members of the two houses of the Diet.The debate has grown out of an internal …
Mr. Maehara’s rebellion
On Monday, Suga Yoshihide, the deputy head of the LDP's election strategy committee, praised Maehara Seiji, deputy head of the DPJ for his comments about the DPJ's ability to govern and incoherent policy agenda in a speech in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. Mr. Suga said: "He spoke courageously. If someone like Maehara-san becomes leader, it will become …
Reshuffle day — LDP leadership
NHK has just announced the new LDP leadership, and in general it looks to be a better team than that which served for the past year.As expected, Aso Taro (Aso faction, 66) has been moved over to party headquarters to become LDP secretary-general; whether this will be a career cul-de-sac for Aso remains to be …
This is getting ridiculous
Back in May, in wake of Mr. Matsuoka's suicide and the nomination of Mr. Akagi to be his replacement, back when it wasn't clear whether Mr. Abe would lead his party to its worst ever defeat at the polls, I noted, semi-facetiously, in a post on Mr. Akagi, "No cabinet-eligible LDP politician has clean hands."Now …
Tobias S. Harris 