“The virus state of emergencies restricting individual activities were tough for the Japanese public,” said Mikitaka Masuyama, a politics professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
And even as other developed countries began rolling out their vaccine programmes in December and January, Japan moved slowly and cautiously.
Pfizer-BioNTech’s formula was the first to be approved, in February, and shots rolled out initially just to health workers.
The campaign moved forward cautiously, expanding to the elderly only in April, with the Moderna formula receiving approval for use in May.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine was given approval the same month, but use was put on hold and only recently began in a limited fashion.
Despite the lethargic start, vaccination picked up fast, with 47 per cent of the population now fully vaccinated. And even without strict lockdowns, the country’s death toll remains comparatively low at about16,000.
“ALWAYS REACTIVE”
The spectre of a pandemic Olympics also hung over Suga’s term, with the prime minister insisting throughout that he was committed to hosting the Games.
When he came into office, he could have called a snap election and capitalised on his then-high approval ratings.
And some speculated that having failed to do so, he might instead hope to ride a wave of Olympic positivity into an autumn election.
But in the event, the Games had little effect on his standing, with his approval rating continuing to fall even as polls found post-Games support for having held the Olympics.
Masuyama said Suga faced an impossible bind in some ways.
“Having to balance virus measures and saving the economy was likely to meet with complaint from the public whatever policies were taken,” he said.
He also lacked strong party allies who might have backed him as his approval ratings sank.
For some it was less what Suga’s government did, and more how he communicated it that caused problems.
“He never really gave people that sense of competence and communicated empathy for what people were going through,” said Corey Wallace, an assistant professor at Kanagawa University who focuses on Japanese politics.
“He didn’t show a strong sense of urgency, he was always reactive and having to explain himself.”
In the end, Suga himself made clear it was the virus response that forced his hand, saying campaigning for leader while battling the pandemic would be impossible.
“I cannot do both. I had to choose one of them.”
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