TOKYO ,08,2020: Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga signalled the possibility of calling a snap election if he were to become the country’s next prime minister, the Asahi newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary and ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker, answers questions of the media during a news conference to announce his candidacy for the party’s leadership election, in Tokyo, Japan September 2, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Suga, a frontrunner to succeed incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, also stressed Japan’s resolve to hold next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games despite the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’d like to contain the pandemic and make this happen,” Suga was quoted as saying in an interview by Asahi. “There are various, extraordinary merits for Japan to host the Games.”
He also said the views of pandemic experts were important in judging whether COVID-19 was slowing down enough for the next prime minister to call a snap election, according to Asahi.
