Suga Takes Office With Third-Best Support for New Japan Premier

(Bloomberg) -- New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga posted the third-highest support rate recorded for a premier entering office, with voters backing his pledges of continuity for managing a virus-hit economy, polls showed.

Suga’s government -- which took office this week -- had a support rate of 74%, the Nikkei newspaper said in a survey released Friday. That’s behind only the 80% Junichiro Koizumi secured when he took over as prime minister in 2001, and 75% for Yukio Hatoyama, who assumed office in 2009 as his Democratic Party ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Respondents gave high marks to the sense of trust and stability that Suga brings, said the Nikkei, whose survey data goes back to 1987. Kyodo News also had Suga at the third-highest inaugural support rate among recent leaders in a poll it released Friday.

Suga even bettered his former boss Shinzo Abe, who came to power in 2012 with a support rate of 62%, the poll showed. Suga was Abe’s right-hand man during his record run as premier, which ended Wednesday when he stepped down due to health reasons, and the ruling LDP used its parliamentary majority to pass the baton to Suga.

When Abe announced his intention to resign in late August, Suga had trouble breaking 15% in polls among the politicians eyed as potential next premiers. But Japan’s public has warmed to Suga, the 71-year-old son of a strawberry farmer from rural Akita prefecture, as it became clear he would take over and bring familiar policies to an uncertain time.

In his inaugural news conference as prime minister, Suga pledged to follow Abe’s policies and give top priority to controlling the coronavirus, which pushed Japan’s economy into its worst contraction on record in the second quarter of this year. He also kept several key players from the previous government in his cabinet, and stacked posts with LDP stalwarts.

Any sign of departure from the Abe government’s flexible fiscal stance and ultra-easy monetary policy -- known as “Abenomics” -- could send the yen surging and stocks sliding, triggering a re-evaluation of the outlook for the nation.

Speculation about an early general election has simmered following a surge in support for the cabinet. The power to dissolve parliament for a general election lies with the prime minister, who isn’t obligated to call one until October of next year. Asked about the timing of the vote on Wednesday, Suga told reporters he wanted first to focus on the pandemic and reviving the economy, while bearing time limits in mind.

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