Japan's Ruthless New PM Is a Control Freak Who Muzzled the Press - The Daily Beast

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is being replaced by his right-hand man, a politician so ruthless his nickname refers to one of the most brutal military rulers in Japanese history.

TOKYO—The right-hand man of Japan’s longest-reigning Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who orchestrated the administration’s control of the press and helped cover up the corruption scandals that forced Abe to resign, is set to be the next prime minister.

Yoshihide Suga was crowned the president of Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), on Monday in an election that had been pre-decided in back-room deals.

The LDP controls the lower house of Japan’s parliament and so their president will become the new prime minister.

The Japanese press, who Suga has successfully tamed, did their best to spin his ascension as a story of a simple hard-working boy from a rural prefecture who worked his way to the top.

While most people in the area entered the labor force after graduating from middle school, Suga went on to high school.

The secretary coordinates policy across government ministries, is the conduit between the prime minister and his political party, is on-call 24/7 to deal with crisis management, and is sometimes called “the shadow prime-minister.” A 2016 book by Isao Mori, The Reflection Of The Prime Minister, details just how powerful Suga had become in his position.

The ruling LDP party has long running links to the yakuza, so it’s no surprise that as Suga is about to become prime minister some of his questionable ties to the traditional Japanese mafia are being re-examined. .

At the time, the scandal broke, Suruga’s office told the press, “We had no awareness of such things happening.” Suga’s office reportedly later returned the political donations from Suruga Corporation. .

A photo of Suga posing with a yakuza boss, at a cherry blossom viewing ceremony hosted by Prime Minister Abe, came into circulation.

Two, to rein in Japan’s press, which might report on new scandals or poor decisions made by the PM.

He has endeared himself to some members of the cabinet press club, which has helped him ensure he gets to see almost all questions before a press conference, and he actively works to limit questions that might embarrass the government.

In the numerous corruption scandals involving the prime minister and his appointees, Suga has knowingly lied to the press about the existence of documents and evidence.

Suga has a particularly prickly relationship with Tokyo Shimbun reporter Isoko Mochizuki, who is one of the few reporters in the press club who will ask him tough questions.

He attempted to have her removed from the press club and snubbed her for months on end. .

At a press conference related to Abe’s role in approving construction for a school inappropriately, when Suga kept evading questions, she asked, “What exactly do you think the purpose of a presser is supposed to be?”?

In other words, if you are an elite government worker and you want to rise to the top, you have to do what pleases the prime minister, or risk being sidelined

In 2017, when Kihei Maekawa, a former bureaucrat in the Ministry of Education, came forward with evidence that confirmed Abe’s involvement in a school scandal, Suga allegedly orchestrated a smear campaign to discredit him

Many expect Suga to be more or less a carbon copy of  Prime Minister Abe when he takes office

At the press conference on September 2, in which he announced he would be running for president of the LDP, he repeatedly said he would continue Abe-era policies, while also making it clear that he would not open the lid on Abe’s corruption scandals

I feel like I’m listening to the statements of Prime Minister Abe