TOKYO--Yoshihide Suga became Japan's first new prime minister in nearly eight years on Wednesday, pledging to contain COVID-19 and push reforms after retaining about half of predecessor Shinzo Abe's lineup in his cabinet.
Suga, 71, said he would stick with his former boss' "Abenomics" growth policies while pushing reforms including deregulation, digitalisation and smashing of bureaucratic barriers.
Seeming to play down the possibility of an early election, he said what Japanese most wanted was to contain the coronavirus outbreak and revive the battered economy. "This is the first thing I want to work on with my new cabinet," he told reporters.
A lower house election must be held by late October 2021 but there is speculation Suga might call a poll sooner to cement his mandate.
Abe, Japan's longest-serving premier, resigned because of ill health after nearly eight years in office. Suga served under him as chief cabinet secretary, acting as top government spokesman and coordinating policies. He also had the task of defending Abe during cronyism scandals that at times dragged down cabinet support rates.
Suga, who won a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership race by a landslide on Monday, faces a plethora of challenges from the pandemic to a rapidly ageing society. With little diplomatic experience, he must also cope with an intensifying U.S.-China confrontation, build ties with the winner of the Nov. 3 U.S. election and try to keep Japan's own relations with Beijing on track.
About half of the new cabinet are carryovers from Abe. Only two are women and the average age, including Suga, is 60.
Finance Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi stayed on, as did Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the youngest in the cabinet at 39. "It's a 'Continuity with a capital C' cabinet," said Jesper Koll, senior adviser to asset manager WisdomTree Investments.
At his news conference, Suga said he would implement policies to beef up Tokyo's alliance with the United States, while hoping to establish stable relationships with China and Russia.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement saying Washington looked forward to working with Suga and calling the U.S.-Japan Alliance "the cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in a free and open Indo-Pacific."
