News PM Suga to resign

Suga met briefly with reporters after the LDP executives' meeting and said he wanted to focus on containing the novel coronavirus pandemic. "A huge amount of energy would have been required to deal with the pandemic and also conduct party presidential campaign activities," he said. "I felt it would have been impossible to do both so I had to decide on one of the two." However, Suga did not take any additional questions from reporters. Top LDP leaders expressed shock at Suga's decision to bow out of the election. "To be honest, I am very surprised," LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai told reporters. He added that he was not aware of what Suga was planning to say before entering the meeting room.

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Vaccination minister Taro Kono to run in LDP leadership race, source says

A former foreign and defense minister, Kono has been high on the list of potential prime ministers in media opinion polls.

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Majestic said:

I think Suga is filling out his term. He just isn't putting his hand up for a second term.

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Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Jan. 17 that he would not run in the Lower House election tentatively scheduled for Feb. 8, but would instead retire from politics. A former Yokohama city assembly member before winning his first Lower House term in 1996, Suga, 77, served a record seven years and eight months as chief Cabinet secretary under then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his second stint in that office. After explaining his decision to retire to his supporters in the Kanagawa No. 2 district, Suga met with reporters and said he had decided to leave politics because he had turned 77, a milestone birthday in Japan, and wanted to hand things over to a younger generation. Before becoming prime minister, Suga served as the minister of internal affairs. He introduced the "furusato nozei" hometown tax program and worked to lower mobile phone rates. As chief Cabinet secretary, Suga announced the name of the new imperial era starting in 2019 as Reiwa.

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