By Max Sato
(MaceNews) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is dropping out of the ruling party leadership race this month, effectively stepping down at the end of his short term, amid public furor over his government’s failure to contain the pandemic.
Suga told an extraordinary executive meeting at the Liberal Democratic Party Friday that he was not running for party president any longer, media reports said, thus giving up on his earlier plan to seek re-election as prime minister after barely a year in office.
Suga’s decision came just weeks before general elections, which have yet to be called. The four-year term of the House of Representatives ends on Oct. 21.
The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported late Tuesday that the embattled prime minister was considering dissolving the lower house of parliament next week and call a snap election in mid-September, delaying the already announced process to pick the ruling party chief.
Suga denied the report Wednesday but there was no indication at the time that he would withdraw from the Sept. 29 LDP election to pick the party leader.
When Suga took over from Shinzo Abe, who stepped down for health reasons in September last year, the approval rating of his new cabinet was fairly high above 60%, but has slumped to 30% to 40% and stayed low, according to opinion polls by major news media.
Many voters are dissatisfied with what critics call a ‘half-baked’ approach toward containing the spread of Covid-19 while keeping the economy open with restrictions short of lockdowns.
There was public outrage over the organizers’ decision to go ahead with the Tokyo Olympics from July 23 to Aug. 8 amid rising coronavirus cases while the Japanese government is urging people to stay home and avoid non-essential shopping and traveling.
Critics say Suga lacks a clear vision for guiding the country through the pandemic toward sustainable economic growth. His administration is trying to come up with plans to digitalize the economy.
Suga is serving the remainder of Abe’s third three-year term until Sept. 30 this year as the president of the ruling party, and thus premiership due to the LDP’s majority in both chambers of parliament.