London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

Japan PM Suga trips up with messy reversal on tourism campaign

Japan PM Suga trips up with messy reversal on tourism campaign

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's abrupt decision to partially pause a domestic travel campaign amid rising COVID-19 cases - after insisting it would go ahead - looks likely to cost him support and may cloud his chances of a long-term tenure.
Suga, who took the top job in September after Shinzo Abe resigned citing illness, has enjoyed solid ratings of over 50%, buoyed by an image as a down-to-earth leader pushing popular policies such as lower mobile phone rates.

But critics said his reversal on a programme he has backed to bolster the economy even as new cases spiked was too little, too late, and risked leaving the image of a leader both stubborn and indecisive, without due care for public health.

"It's a display of indecisiveness that gives people a lot of reason to be resentful," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano. "At this point, they (the government) still sound like they don't know what they are doing."

Abe's own support ratings never recovered after sagging on the public's perception that his response to the pandemic was clumsy and slow.

Suga is currently serving out Abe's remaining term to next September and must win a ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership race then in order to remain premier.

The policy fumble threatens his standing just two months into his premiership, with stiffer tests ahead, including the extent to which COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise, and whether Tokyo can host the postponed Summer Olympics in 2021.

"His ratings will decline, almost certainly," said independent political analyst Atsuo Ito, pointing to the delay in partially pausing the campaign. "The view may spread that he puts a priority on keeping the economy running rather than protecting people's lives."

In brief remarks on Saturday - after a three-day holiday was underway - Suga said the government would suspend new travel reservations to areas hard hit by COVID-19 under its "Go To Travel" programme, which subsidises tourism.

Critics of the programme have said it risks spreading the infection from major cities to the countryside.

On Tuesday, the government said Osaka and the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido would be excluded as target destinations in the travel subsidy programme. No decision has been made on the capital of Tokyo.

Government officials have repeatedly said travel itself does not spread infections if steps such as wearing face masks are taken.

However, Kyoto University professor Hiroshi Nishiura, an infectious disease expert and member of a government advisory board, said it was clear greater movement of people boosted infection risk.

Experts advising the government - who on Friday had finally urged a partial pause in the Go To programme - had been "somewhat forced" to accept policies to help the economy despite such increased health risks, he told Reuters.

Opposition parties, who are also linking Suga to an alleged Abe funding scandal, quickly chimed in with criticism.

"The timing of the announcement was too late and both the timing and target areas are not clear," Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary general of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, said on television.

Suga's long-term future hinges on the outcome of a general election that must be held by October 2021.

"If the LDP loses a lot of seats, he may be held responsible," said University of Tokyo political science professor Yu Uchiyama.

($1 = 104.4800 yen)
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×