- 14 Mar 2002
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PM Suga doing an Abe: today, he declared he would not run in the party presidential election set for 29 September.
In the race so far: former Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio and Kono Taro, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence, currently Minister for Administrative and Regulatory Reform. It wouldn't be bad to have a PM who has a good command of the English language.
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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In the race so far: former Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio and Kono Taro, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence, currently Minister for Administrative and Regulatory Reform. It wouldn't be bad to have a PM who has a good command of the English language.
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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