Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has commuted to his office from a nearby apartment complex rather than moving into the leader's official residence since assuming his post, drawing flak that this makes him potentially slow to respond to crises.
Days after a major earthquake struck the Tohoku region late Feb. 13, former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, urged Suga to move into the prime minister's residence, located next to the Prime Minister's Office, calling him "selfish" for resisting.
"A minute or two means a lot when it comes to crisis management," said Noda, who lived in the residence during his 2011-2012 tenure.