Feb 3, 2021
OSAKA – Four months into his term as prime minister, Yoshihide Suga is facing a mountain of problems and low approval ratings. From controversial new legislation aimed at bringing the coronavirus under control to the fate of the Tokyo Olympics to scandals within his party, Suga’s leadership ability and style is under increased scrutiny and criticism. As his term expires in September and a general election must be held by October, how he handles these problems over the next few months could determine his political fate this autumn.
The most pressing issues Suga faces start with effectively implementing the soon-to-be-passed
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologizes at the Feb. 2 Upper House plenary session. (Kotaro Ebara)
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has apologized to the public after three lawmakers from his own party visited two Ginza nightclubs during the state of emergency issued over the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“At a time when we were asking the public for their understanding and cooperation, politicians should have been serving as role models, but what occurred is unacceptable and extremely regrettable, Suga said on Feb. 2, during the Upper House plenary session. “I express my heartfelt apology to the public.”
Three members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party visited Tokyo’s swanky Ginza district in mid-January, during the state of emergency in effect for the capital and 10 other prefectures. They all formally left the party on Feb. 1.
Feb 2, 2021
Ten prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka will remain under a state of emergency due to COVID-19 through March 7, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Tuesday, in continued efforts to contain the recent surge of infections to a level at which restrictions on economic activities can be lifted.
The current state of emergency is in effect across 11 areas Tokyo and the prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Tochigi, Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, Aichi, Gifu and Fukuoka. The government removed Tochigi from the list after seeing numbers of new COVID-19 patients falling in the northern Kanto prefecture. On Jan. 7 this year we issued a state of emergency, and the central government and each prefecture have implemented measures together with cooperation from the people, Suga said in a Lower House committee Tuesday afternoon. As a result, the number of new COVID-19 patients nationwide is heading downward, but we need to continue this trend and decrease the number of pe
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Komeito lawmaker quits over hostess bar visit amid virus emergency 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/
Komeito lawmaker Kiyohiko Toyama bows at the Diet building Monday as he offers to quit after admitting that he visited a hostess bar late at night last month. | KYODO
Kyodo Feb 1, 2021
A senior member of the ruling coalition offered to quit the Diet Monday after angering the public by visiting a Tokyo hostess bar despite government calls to avoid unnecessary outings under a state of emergency to rein in the spread of the coronavirus.