Yoshihide Suga to inherit economic woes, Tokyo Olympics challenge from Shinzo Abe

After election of Yoshihide Suga as leer of Japan’s ruling party, it is almost certain that chief cabinet secretary will take over reins as country’s next Prime Minister. This also means that Suga will inherit all tough challenges faced by Abe and its handling will set tone for next year’s general elections.

One of toughest challenges would be handling of coronavirus pandemic as Abe faced backlash over COVID-19 response during second wave. While Japan has been witnessing a decline in daily coronavirus cases for over a month, number was too high as compared to early st of virus outbreak. Japan has reported over 75,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus cases with more than 1,400 related death so far.

Japan’s ecomy witnessed a record 7.8 per cent contraction in first quarter, its worst in post-war period. Abe was kwn for his signature ecomic strategy of "Abemics", a portmanteau of Abe and ecomics, but pandemic has undone whatever little progress me on that front by island nation.

Abe vocated ecomic policies based on “three arrows” of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms. monetary easing from Bank of Japan and increased government spending helped Abe steer ecomy out of deflation but coveted growth remained elusive. subsequent slowdown in later years has raised questions about effectiveness of his ecomic strategy. 

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All eyes would be Suga wher he follows Abemics or choose his own path for ecomic recovery in post-pandemic period. Suga is expected to finish rest of current term until elections in September 2021 and any dramatic shift in key policy decisions is highly unlikely. However, if Suga opts to follow ecomic policies of Abe without any success, it could backfire in next elections.

Tokyo Olympics

Tokyo Olympics is ar major challenge for Suga as Japan is set to host international sporting event next year, which will just two months before polls. Holding a large scale sporting event with strict COVID-19 measures could be a big task for Suga if athletes and staff don’t get immunised before Olympics.

On foreign policy front, Abe focussed on strengning ties with tritional allies like United States, Australia and India, but he also did a balancing act by t letting Japan’s relationship with China sour. Beijing will be looking closely at Suga as China has been cornered in post-pandemic world over various issues including coronavirus outbreak and human rights violation in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.  

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