This study examines the Suga administration's foreign policy and its impact on Korea-Japan relations. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was born after Abe resigned, the longest prime minister in Japanese constitutional history. Suga emphasized continuity with the Abe administration and maintained Abe's foreign and security policies. In other words, the core of Japan's diplomacy is the Japan-U.S. alliance for Prime Minister Suga. He said that it is important to move forward with Asian countries on the basis of the U.S.-Japan alliance. He is not particularly different from Prime Minister Abe. A cross-section of the foreign policy of the Suga administration can be read from the statement that “Abe will play a role as a diplomatic envoy.” Also, since Prime Minister Suga has little experience in diplomacy, it is also true that it was difficult for him to show his color in diplomacy until he established a stable government. However, in order for the Suga administration to stabilize, it has to overcome the shadow of Abe. In this regard, the Suga administration's focus was on domestic policy, but it also tried to differentiate itself in diplomacy.
From the time of its inception, Prime Minister Suga set his goal in the direction of gaining support from the people through policy outcomes rather than taking the path of stabilizing the government through elections. Due to the spread of the coronavirus, the atmosphere for elections was not formed. In addition, the experience and confidence of Prime Minister Abe's experience and confidence in the policy, which he had served as chief cabinet secretary for over 7 years, also acted to bet against the policy. But Prime Minister Suga was withdrawn without even an opportunity to hold an election seeking re-election. Prime Minister Suga passed the power to Prime Minister Kishida without even being able to implement specific policies to realize the future vision of Japanese society he had envisioned. It must be said that Prime Minister Suga's goal of maintaining public support based on the results of his policies has failed. It is clear that the Suga administration's political limitations and uncertainty about the future made a compromise with South Korea difficult. In a situation where the Corona response had an impact on approval ratings, Prime Minister Suga became a spark for domestic politics. Under this circumstance, Prime Minister Suga may have been criticized in Japan for taking a lukewarm response in Korea's policy, engrossed in domestic measures.
Discussion on the foreign policy of the Suga administration has not yet advanced in Korean academic circles. This is because we are looking at it from the continuum of the Abe administration. However, the political environment that Prime Minister Suga is in has been passed on to the current Prime Minister, Kishida. After the resignation of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was called the Abe Ilgang, the Liberal Democratic Party's factional politics are exerting power again. Even Kishida is not easily freed from the influence of the faction. It became difficult to escape the influence of the three factions Abe, Aso, and Takeshita. Therefore, there are concerns about how the ruling party's adjustment or the National Assembly's measures will be pursued. The extent to which Kishida will exert control over the government has become the key to achieving the stability of the regime. Also, Prime Minister Kishida, like Prime Minister Suga, can determine the fate of the regime by its ability to successfully manage policies. This is because if the Prime Minister's approval rating is lower than that of the LDP, the theory of "replacement of prime minister" may rise again within the LDP.
Taking this into consideration, the study of the Suga administration will serve as a basis for understanding the current political situation in Japan. I would like to thank the authors who participated in this study, and I have no doubt that this book will be of great help in understanding Japanese politics.
Volume No: 2021-2
Issue Date: 2022. 02. 04.
Page: 121 pages