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Takaaki Kajita, president of the Science Council of Japan, speaks to reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Tokyo on 16 October 2020. Kyodo via AP Images
Japan’s top science advice group battles government over independence and identity
Jan. 7, 2021 , 4:10 PM
After months of political skirmishing, the Japanese government’s top scientific advisory council finds itself embroiled in a two-front struggle with the nation’s elected leaders. One battle centers on Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s unprecedented decision to block the appointment of several scholars to the governing body of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ), the nation’s equivalent of a national science academy. The other involves a proposal from Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to convert SCJ, now a part of the government, into an independent entity at least partly responsible for raising its own funds.
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The coming year poses daunting challenges for the fledgling cabinet of Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide. With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, the once-delayed Tokyo Olympic Games looming, and Diet and party elections in the offing, how will Suga juggle the demands of policy, party, and electoral strategy to consolidate his leadership? And how will Japan’s opposition forces take advantage of their recent merger?
Suga’s “Policy First” Approach
The year 2021 will be a busy and potentially pivotal one for Japanese politics. The Diet reconvenes in mid-January to deliberate two budgets before taking up the cabinet’s legislative agenda. The Tokyo Olympic Games are set to begin on July 23 after a one-year delay. Prime Minister Suga, who replaced Abe Shinzō as LDP president after Abe’s sudden resignation last September, could face a strong challenge in the regular LDP leadership election scheduled for September 2021. The current terms of all members of the Hous
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Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga completed 100 days in office. He will hope for hundreds more to follow. But if the proverbial hot seat he currently occupies gets any hotter, it may not be long before he is forced to vacate and make way for someone else.
As of last week, Mr Suga’s approval rating – or more precisely, that of his cabinet – has sunk to about 40 per cent. The precipitous fall, from a little over 55 per cent polled just last month, has raised two questions. First, will Mr Suga survive the next year in office? And second, how is it that a politician of Mr Suga’s experience and guile is facing such strong political headwinds just three months after being unanimously elected by his party to replace Shinzo Abe?
Global science chief urges Suga to explain Japan science council controversy 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/
Kyodo Dec 18, 2020
The head of a global academic council has urged Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to provide a reasonable explanation for his decision to reject the appointment of six scholars to a government advisory body.
“To ensure an open and enabling environment for science in Japan, it would be helpful for the Japanese government to respond to the requests for an explanation, and to agree to an open discussion of the matter with the (Japanese council),” said Daya Reddy, president of the International Science Council, in a recent written interview with Kyodo News.