Economy is a priority for new Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga

Yoshihide Suga is expected to stick closely to policies championed by predecessor Shinzo Abe after he was elected to take charge of the world’s third biggest economy.

New Japanaese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, centre, bows as he is welcomed following the departure of outgoing prime minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Yoshihide Suga is expected to stick closely to policies championed by prime ministerial predecessor Shinzo Abe after he was elected to take charge of the world’s third biggest economy on Wednesday.

Mr Suga, 71, snared an easy victory, taking 314 votes of 462 valid ballots cast in the lower house of parliament, where his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) holds a commanding majority.

He bowed deeply as MPs ­applauded after the announcement, but made no immediate comment.

“According to the results, our house has decided to name Yoshihide Suga Prime Minister,” lower house Speaker Tadamori Oshima announced after the votes were counted.

Mr Suga will face a raft of tough challenges, including an economy that was already in recession ­before the coronavirus pandemic.

He has said kickstarting the economy will be a top priority, along with containing the virus — essential if the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics are to open as planned next July.

His recipe for doing that? More of the same, he says.

“In order to overcome the ­crisis and give the Japanese ­people a sense of relief, we need to succeed in what Prime Minister Abe has been implementing,” Mr Suga said after being elected LDP leader on Monday.

Mr Suga was expected to ­announce his cabinet on Wednesday night, with local media ­reporting he would retain several ministers from Mr Abe’s last government.

Mr Suga is viewed as a continuity candidate and has said his run was inspired by a desire to pursue Mr Abe’s policies.

Mr Abe, who resigned earlier on Wednesday along with his cabinet, is ending his record run in office with a year left in his mandate. He was forced out by a recurrence of ulcerative colitis, a bowel disease that has long plagued him.

Mr Suga has spent decades in politics — most recently as chief cabinet secretary, where he was known for pushing government policies through a sometimes ­intractable bureaucracy.

He has also been the face of the government, doggedly ­defending its policies as spokesman, including in sometimes testy exchanges with journalists.

His upbringing, as the son of a strawberry-farmer father and schoolteacher mother, sets him apart from the many blue-blood political elites in his party and the Japanese political scene.

But while he has championed some measures intended to help rural areas like his hometown in northern Japan’s Akita, his political views remain something of a mystery.

He is viewed as more pragmatic than ideological, and during his campaign spoke more about the need to break down ­administrative obstacles — so-called bureaucratic silos — than any grand guiding principles.

Mr Suga’s cabinet is expected to bring few surprises, with Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Finance Minister Taro Aso expected to stay on in their jobs.

Defence Minister Taro Kono is tipped to be replaced by Mr Abe’s brother Nobuo Kishi, who was adopted by his uncle as a child and carries his surname.

Mr Kono is reportedly set to become minister in charge of ­administrative reform, a portfolio Mr Suga considers particularly important. Just two women are so far ­reported to be in the cabinet, as Olympic minister and justice minister, down from the three who served in Mr Abe’s last government.

Analysts say Mr Suga is likely to stick with his predecessor signature Abenomics program, involving vast government spending, massive monetary easing and the cutting of red tape.

On the diplomatic front, Mr Suga is a relative novice, with little foreign policy experience.

There too, experts say, he is likely to tread the path charted by Mr Abe, prioritising the key relationship with the US, whoever is president after November’s election.

Relations with China may prove trickier, with a global hardening of opinion against Beijing after the coronavirus and unrest in Hong Kong.

There has been speculation that Mr Suga could call a snap election to consolidate his position and avoid being seen as a caretaker prime minister, but he has been circumspect on the prospect.

Mr Abe will stay on as an MP, with some mooting the possibility he could undertake diplomatic missions.

On Wednesday morning as he prepared to resign, Mr Abe said he had given “all my strength” and was ending his tenure “with a sense of pride”.

“I owe everything to the Japanese people,” he said.

AFP