Sugar was elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Party on Monday with about 70 percent of the vote, but he still needed the support of the National Assembly, the National Assembly, to become officially prime minister.
He won the National Assembly with 314 out of 465 votes in the House and 142 out of 240 in the Senate.
The new prime minister is set to announce a cabinet lineup that is expected to include a number of former Abe nominees before Emperor Naruhito’s oath at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon.
It is not surprising that Suga was appointed as Abe’s replacement. Suga was the right arm of a former Japanese leader during his nearly eight years in office during Abe’s tenure, and held an important position in the government’s cabinet minister, which combined chief of staff and media secretary.
Sugar is known as a successful political operator who can get the job done, and in collaboration with his former leaders, he implemented “Abenomics,” a set of economic policies designed to boost Japan’s economy.
In fact, Suga has a very close relationship with the former prime minister, so Kazuto Suzuki, Vice Dean of International Political Science at Hokkaido University, described him as’Abe Deputy’.
Future problems
Japan also faces major long-term economic and social problems such as massive government debt and an aging population. Despite President Abe’s public demand for reforms for gender equality in the workplace, critics say enough progress has not been made during his government.
Sugar will face a referendum on the new government sooner than he wished. The Prime Minister will have to hold the general election again by October 2021, but Defense Minister Taro Konot said Wednesday that an impromptu election could be convened next month as soon as possible.
CNN’s Emiko Jozuka, Joshua Berlinger, and Will Ripley contributed to this article.