Some have suggested that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida may stand to gain from looking to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's strong approach to the the workings of inner government.
Emperor s Tokyo Olympic opening declaration mirrors divided public Sorry, but your browser needs Javascript to use this site. If you re not sure how to activate it, please refer to this site: https://www.enable-javascript.com/
Emperor Naruhito waves during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics at the National Stadium in the capital on Friday. | REUTERS
KYODO Jul 25, 2021
The conspicuous absence of the word “celebrating” in the Japanese version of Emperor Naruhito’s opening declaration for the Tokyo Olympics reflects a public deeply divided over whether the Games should be going ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Postponed a year by the global outbreak of COVID-19, the Olympics officially began Friday with a spectatorless ceremony at the 68,000-capacity National Stadium.
May 27, 2021
As Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pushes for a quicker vaccine rollout for a nation playing catch-up with much of the developed world, his top-down management style is facing growing scrutiny after weeks of snap decisions that bypassed even members of his own Cabinet.
Within the span of about a month, Suga declared ambitious goals on vaccines in rapid succession, opening up mass vaccination sites run by the Self-Defense Forces, completing all vaccinations for those age 65 or older by the end of July and targeting 1 million doses per day. Exasperated by an astonishingly slow rollout, the prime minister turned to a commanding style that he honed during his nearly eight years as chief Cabinet secretary to map out a more ambitious path forward.
Masanori Okada, a professor at Waseda University, left, and Ryuichi Ozawa, a professor at Jikei University School of Medicine, center, explain their request for the government to disclose documents related to their membership rejection to the Science Council of Japan in Tokyo on April 26. (Yu Kamata)
Six scholars have threatened legal action against the government if it refuses their information-disclosure request to find out why Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga rejected their memberships on the Science Council of Japan.
Most of their requests for documents on the reason and history behind their rejections were made on April 26.
They said they will consider filing a complaint or lawsuit if the government fails to provide the documents or blacks out information in them.
The Cabinet press secretary resigned on March 1, five days after saying she would stay on despite being at the center of a wining and dining scandal.
Makiko Yamada, citing health reasons for her decision, informed her superiors the previous day that she was in the hospital and required about two weeks to recover.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met with reporters on March 1 and said, “I would like to express my apologies to Diet members and the public for the trouble caused through the resignation of the Cabinet public relations secretary at a very important time in Diet deliberations.”
The budget for fiscal 2021 was approved in the Lower House plenary session on March 2.