Japanese Prime Minister resigns amid spike in COVID-19 cases

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced on Friday that he would step down, paving the way for a new prime minister after a year in office marked by the unpopular response to COVID-19 and a rapid decline in public support.

Suga, who took office after Shinzo Abe resigned last September for health reasons, has seen his popularity drop below 30% as the country faces its worst wave of COVID infections. 19 ahead of this year’s general election.

Suga’s decision on Friday not to run in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) election in September means the party will elect a new leader, who will become prime minister.

Japanese Nikkei futures rose 2% immediately after news outlets announced Suga would not show up, while the broader Topix index increased its earnings and hit its highest levels since 1991 on the news. .

“I want to focus on the coronavirus response, so I communicated to the LDP executive meeting that I have decided not to run for the party leadership,” Suga told reporters.

“It takes immense energy to tackle both the coronavirus response and the preparation for the leadership race,” he added. “I felt that I couldn’t combine the two and that I had to focus on one of them.”

Suga spoke to a group of reporters for less than two minutes in his office and left the scene amid screams for further explanation. He said he would hold a press conference next week.

The speech ended a chaotic week in which Suga did everything he could to save his job, from suggestions he would fire his longtime ally as party secretary general, to plans to summon early elections and reshaping the executive branch of the party and its cabinet.

Leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have said Suga will end his tenure as president, meaning he will remain in office until his successor is elected in full-party elections scheduled for the 29th. September.

Fumio Kishida, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, is a candidate for the post of party leader. On Thursday, Kishida criticized Suga’s response to the coronavirus and urged creating a stimulus package to fight the pandemic.

“Stock prices are rising because of the view that the chances of the PLD defeating in the general election have diminished because anyone other than Suga will be able to regain popularity,” said Toru Suehiro, senior economist at Daiwa Securities.

With information from Reuters