Yoshihide Suga to step down as Japanese PM

Yoshihide Suga will step down as Japanese Prime Minister amid increasing anger over his government’s handling of COVID-19. Suga announced on Friday that he would not seek re-election in this month’s leadership race for the ruling Liberal Democratic party. The winner of that contest will lead the party in a general election that must be held by November 30. Suga became Prime Minister just one year ago after long-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stepped down over health concerns. He said during a party meeting that he wanted to focus on the coronavirus pandemic instead of continuing on as the head of the LDP. 

With a general election upcoming in the fall Suga’s resignation paves the way for a new leader of the world’s third-largest economy. Suga, the son of a strawberry farmer from the northern prefecture of Akita, originally had approval ratings as high as 70% early in his tenure because he was seen as a leader for the common people rather than blue-blood political families such as Abe. Japan is still under state of Covid emergency and is currently grappling with its worst wave of the Coronavirus with more than 1.5 million cases since the start of the pandemic.