Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday, he would not run for the re-election as the party leader this month, effectively ended his term after only one year, his party secretary general said.
Suga announced his intention to resign at an emergency meeting of the senior Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Toshihiro Nikai told reporters.
“Today at the executive meeting, (party) President Suga said he wanted to focus his efforts on anti-Koronavirus steps and would not run in the election of leadership,” Nikai said.
“Honestly, I was surprised.
It’s really regrettable.
He did my best but after careful consideration, he made this decision,” he added.
The shock announcement came with the rating of Agreement Suga was initially low on the handling of his government for a response to a pandemic.
But it was a decision that had not been in-action, with Suga did not drop the plan to leave the office after one year in power and before fighting for his first general election.
He came to the office last year, stepped into the left left post when the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned for health reasons.
Suga is widely expected to seek re-election as the LDP leader in voting for September 29, with most speculations only about how fast after that he will call the general election.
The election must be summoned at the end of October, and LDP is expected to remain in power but may lose the seat as a result of Suga’s insufflect.
The rating of his government approval has reached the lowest point of all time of 31.8 percent in accordance with the polls by the Kyodo news agency last month.
And the latest report on the plan for the cabinet reshuffle, in an effort to improve its insecurity, it doesn’t seem enough.
Suga has been hit by his government’s response to a pandemic, with Japan struggling through a record of the five wave of viruses after a slow start for the vaccine program.
Most countries are currently in restrictions on viruses, and their steps have occurred in several regions for almost throughout the year.
But they are not enough to stop the surge in cases driven by a more contagious Delta variant, even when the vaccine program has taken steps with almost 43 percent of the population that is fully inoculated.
Japan has recorded nearly 16,000 deaths during a pandemic.
The election of 72-year-old Suga as last year’s prime minister limits a long political career.
Before taking the top office, he served in the main role of the Head of Cabinet Secretary, and he had gained a frightening reputation to use his strength to control a broad and strong Japanese bureaucracy.
The son of a strawberry farmer and a school teacher, Suga grew up in the Akita countryside in North Japan and placed himself through college after moving to Tokyo by working in a factory.
He was elected to his first office in 1987 as a member of the Council in Yokohama outside Tokyo, and entered the parliament in 1996.