Japan's Suga Cabinet, which inherited former Prime Minister Abe's tenure as governor of the Liberal Democratic Party for one year, has passed in office for more than four months.
In the early days of office, Japanese people had a lot of expectations for a new cabinet to replace Prime Minister Abe, who had been in office for 7 years and 8 months.
The Suga cabinet showed active willingness to reform, escaping administrative vices, dissolving the divisions of ministries, and advocating digital reforms. In response, there was a time when the cabinet approval rating soared to more than 70%.
In the early stage, the government promoted the economy, which was stagnant by Corona 19, to be saved as a ``Go To Travel,'' and the appearance of taking care of the public's livelihood, such as pulling down telecom rates by pressing on large mobile carriers, was also a support for the increase in the approval rating in the early stage.
But the problem came back to Corona.
In winter, a third wave of high fashion came to Japan.
Prime Minister Suga was unable to give up his regrets to save the economy and insisted on a travel promotion plan, eventually being pushed by public opinion and temporarily suspended from the end of last year.
Even after the year changed, the situation of'infectious explosion' across Japan did not progress much, and in the end, on the 8th, an emergency was issued to four metropolitan local governments, including Tokyo, and seven local governments including Osaka and Kyoto on the 13th.
The Special Arrivals International Road (Business Track), which used to admit international students, expatriates, and industrial trainees from neighboring countries such as China, Korea, and Southeast Asia, also stopped under pressure from conservative members of the Liberal Democratic Party who feared the spread of infection and the influx of mutant viruses in Japan.
Meanwhile, approval ratings plummeted to the 30% level, just before Abe's resignation.
The decline in the approval ratings of the Suga cabinet was due to the re-proliferation of the corona, such as the fact that the Prime Minister himself had a dinner with 7 people at a high-end restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo after asking the public to refrain from drinking at a press conference and inquiries to the National Assembly. There are also aspects that are difficult to pick up.
There is a person who has recently emerged as support for Prime Minister Suga, who gained popularity in the early days as a simple ``Uncle Reiwa,'' who loves sweet cakes, has declined.
This is the Taro Kono Administrative Reform Award.
Although he said that he was a ‘supply prize’, he is one of the ministers of the deceased, who served as foreign and defense ministers in the last Abe regime.
The Suga cabinet was in charge of administrative reform, a little bit off the core of the cabinet, but it gave the public the perception that'Mr. Kono does some work' as a character that is unique and aggressive and confronts conflict.
Representatively, government offices have promoted a policy to eliminate the'approval stamps' that are placed on top of the line.
Japan, a member of the parliamentary cabinet system, is all active members of the National Assembly, from the prime minister to our ministerial cabinet ministers.
The governor of the ruling party becomes the head of the government as the prime minister, and the prime minister appoints a minister (in Japan, the'president') from among fellow senior and junior members.
The head of the government is not directly elected by the people, but the legislators who may become ministers are elected through direct elections, so members of the National Assembly always pay attention to the overall'popularity' as well as the management of the district.
However, this popularity management is usually done in a'negative way' that minimizes swearing, rather than doing something'out of the way'.
If you stay still, the middle will go. With this thought, you are careful about your usual words and actions and always take a defensive posture.
The Taro Kono Award for Administrative Reform (Kanagawa 15 wards, 8 selections) with Kanagawa Prefecture as a regional ward is slightly different.
First of all, social media activities frequently appear in the media.
Minister Kono's SNS (mainly Twitter) was previously introduced in a report file (▶ Japanese Minister's Bizarre How to Use SNS…What Does He Believe?), but then and now, among Japanese politicians, following former Prime Minister Abe, the number of subscribers 2 It keeps the stomach firmly.
In fact, on Twitter, Secretary Kono is notorious for his consistent'user blocking'.
It is natural for users who write critical posts directly to them, and many users say they were blocked even though they did not say anything to be blocked.
It is possible to speculate that the results are often reflected in blocking by doing so-called'ego search', which'searches' your name on Twitter.
It's a story about Twitter's rules, but'blocking' is a fairly extreme act of saying'I won't communicate with you at all'.
If you're uncomfortable or don't like what someone is saying on Twitter, you can stop subscribing or use the'mute' feature that doesn't expose the person's tweets on your timeline.
So, there is an interpretation that Kono's extreme act of'blocking' is itself a'political act' in the positive sense of'you are out'.
Not long ago, a story of people who were blocked by Minister Kono on Twitter was published in the Tokyo newspaper.
It is presumed that the people whom Minister Gono struck'blocking' are mainly journalists and writers, who have their own power of dissemination, but there were actually many ordinary people.
In 2019, when Minister Kono was the foreign minister, at a meeting held in Japan inviting the heads of African countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met with young women in traditional Japanese costumes lined up.
An Osaka designer (a 61-year-old male) who tweeted about this and said it was ``not good'' was blocked by Minister Kono without asking or asking.
Minister Gono even relentlessly blocks people who have ``liked (heart-shaped on Twitter)'' on her tweets, so I don't think the standard of blocking is necessarily ``personal criticism''.
Aside from Minister Kono's ``weird'' Twitter life, Prime Minister Suga recently gave Minister Kono another fight.
Kono was appointed as the Japanese government's Minister of Vaccination.
Prime Minister Suga, who has forgotten all the approval ratings earned in response to the coronavirus, has asked for emergency relief by entrusting the most important ``vaccine vaccination'' related task to the people, who is recognized by the public for one driving force.
During the first two days, Minister Kono skillfully avoided the attention of the media, saying, ``There is a lot to study,'' and from the middle of last week, he once denied the vaccine supply plan proposed by the Japanese government.
On the 21st, Deputy Minister of the Cabinet Office Sakai Manabu Sakai announced that he would correct his remarks at a press conference, saying,'We will secure the quantity of vaccines required for all citizens who are subject to vaccination by June.'
The reason is that "the supply schedule has not yet been specifically determined."
The Japanese media criticized the government's vaccine supply plan, saying it'didn't fit'.
Numerous people in Japan are paying attention to Secretary Kono's move to take charge of the vaccine, which is the ``core'' of corona recovery.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the destiny of the Suga regime, which has to hold a general election and an election for the LDP governor at the latest in the fall, as well as the Tokyo Olympics, which was struck by the rush of the Tokyo Olympics, was in effect on Minister Kono.
It seems that no Japanese politician has been predicted to have the same turbulent year 2021 as Secretary Kono, from the next prime minister if it goes well, to the fall election'unsuccessful' if not.
(Photo = Getty Image Korea)