Yoshihide Suga is one step closer to becoming Japan’s next prime minister after being elected president of the country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday.
Suga, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s chief Cabinet secretary, said he wants to create a government that people can trust and vowed to push ahead with Abe’s economic policies, according to Nikkei Asian Review.
“We cannot have any void in policy,” Suga said. “It is my mission to carry forward what has been done under Prime Minister Abe.”
Suga, 71, said he would create a central agency to handle Japan’s digitalization and improve competition in the telecommunications industry to lower cellphone rates.
He is almost certain to be elected on Wednesday in both houses of parliament, in which the ruling coalition holds majorities. Suga would be able to stay in office until September 2021, when the party will hold another leadership election.
Abe, 65, announced he would resign as prime minister last month, citing health reasons.
Abe is the longest-serving Japanese prime minister. He has suffered from colitis, an inflammatory bowel syndrome, for several years. Abe first served as prime minister for about a year before he resigned in 2007 due to health reasons. In 2012, he became prime minister again and has since served in the role.
Suga, viewed as inexperienced in foreign relations, will have to steer Japan through rising tensions with China and the outcome of the United States’s presidential election come November.
