Name? Yoshihide Suga
Westphalian identity? Japanese
Age? 72
Why is he in the news? A couple of reasons including the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, a contaminated water scandal, the meeting of ‘the Quad,’ and most recently, the announcement that PM Suga will be the first foreign leader to visit the U.S. since President Biden took office, according to a senior administration official.
Why do we care? Considering the average age in Japan is significantly higher than the regional average, we keep expecting Japan to slow down and sit back. Yet Suga’s government trudges forward with the Olympics, contamination issues, multilateral meetings and apparently international travel!? We would be lying if we said we weren’t a little jealous…
Why should you care? Expanding on the contaminated water issue, Suga’s government wants to begin releasing the 1.25 million tons of cooling water from the 2011 Fukushima disaster into the sea. While the water would be diluted and decontaminated first, the move has angered Fukushima’s fishing community as it is only now getting back on its feet a decade after the disaster. In other words, contaminated water + contaminated fish = 7/10 on our how much you should care scale.
Who else cares? Moon Jae-in, President of South Korea. Not only is President Moon angry about the potential ocean contamination from Fukushima, but also he is presumably feeling left-out as all the other major regional leaders meet virtually today. But don’t worry Moon, Secretary Blinken will come visit next week!
Any further comments? At the Quad meeting, emphasis was placed on jointly tackling the two ongoing crises of climate change and Covid19. In fact, the Quad partners will pledge to fully implement the Paris Agreement as well as increase their capacity to create and distribute vaccines in the region. These actions, among others, emphasize the Quad’s commitment to promoting Japan’s strategy of a free and open Indo-Pacifc in competition with China’s own plans for the region.
