COMMENTARY / Japan

After Abe, will Japan return to a 'revolving door' premiership?

How Yoshihide Suga is able to dodge fears of a return to political instability

Yoshihide Suga enters the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on Wednesday. Given that Suga is still a relatively unknown quantity, some in the political and diplomatic community fret whether he will be able to maintain political stability after Shinzo Abe’s record-breaking tenure. | REUTERS

By Tobias Harris
Contributing Writer

Sep 16, 2020

It wasn’t too long ago that Yoshihide Suga was an afterthought in the post-Abe sweepstakes.

As recently as late July, the Nikkei Shimbun found that among supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party, only 4 percent supported Suga for Japan’s next prime minister, trailing not only his eventual contenders former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba and former foreign minister Fumio Kishida, but also Constitutional Democratic Party leader Yukio Edano.

After more than seven years as the power behind Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it was difficult to imagine the dour Suga rising to the top job.

After Abe, will Japan return to a 'revolving door' premiership?

How Yoshihide Suga is able to dodge fears of a return to political instability

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