Japan’s 204th regular parliament opened on the 18th, but because Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga made a series of verbal errors during his policy speech on the same day, it caused widespread concern.
Yoshihide Suga delivered policy speeches in the House of Representatives and the Senate successively on the 18th.
According to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun on the 19th, Yoshihide Suga read through the policy speech speech at the plenary session of the House of Representatives, but at the plenary session of the Senate, when talking about the “declaration of emergency” in response to Coronavirus pandemic, Yoshihide Suga Misinterpretation of “thorough measures” as “restricted measures” and “elementary school” as “elementary and junior high school”; Suga Yoshihide mistakenly reads “all subjects” as “all all” when it comes to promoting Japan’s low carbon “.
In addition, he misread “birth” as “production” and so on.
The Prime Minister’s frequent verbal errors also sparked discussions on Japanese social networks.
Some netizens speculated that “Yoshihide Suga misread it because he is not familiar with the manuscript written by the secretary.” In addition, there are also views that the recent decline in the cabinet’s support rate has led to increased personal pressure on Yoshihide Suga, which may have been one of the reasons for his repeated verbal errors. Perhaps because it was the first policy speech since taking office, Yoshihide Suga paid more attention to this.
Reports revealed that Yoshihide Suga did not even leave the House of Representatives’ dormitory in Akasaka, Tokyo on the 17th. When asked by reporters on the morning of the 18th how he spent the previous day, Yoshihide Suga stated that he “repeatedly practiced the policy speech” and emphasized that he had already Ready.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time Yoshihide Suga has made a slip of the tongue. Since coming to power in September 2020, Yoshihide Suga has made at least 5 verbal errors on different occasions.
According to the “Asahi Shimbun” statistics, on October 19 last year, Yoshihide Suga made a speech during his visit to Vietnam, misinterpreting “ASEAN” as “Argentina”, and was complained by netizens that “Japanese is as bad as English”; October 26 of the same year , He mispronounced the Japanese word “emphasis” when he delivered the “reported” speech in the interim parliament in the fall; on October 29, Suga Yoshihide mistakenly said “there” (sokosokoniaru) when asked by members of the Diet.
This year, Yoshihide Suga has mistaken “a certain period before autumn” into “a certain period of autumn” at the New Year’s press conference on the 4th, and then on the 13th. When announcing the expansion of the “Declaration of Emergency Situations”, the “Fukuoka Prefecture” was misread as “Shizuoka Prefecture.”
Why Suga Yoshihide frequently makes mistakes in public places has attracted the attention of Japanese public opinion. Japan’s “Yomiuri Shimbun” analyzed that in response to Coronavirus pandemic, Yoshihide Suga did not take a break during the New Year period. He pressed himself on official duties every day.
He was extremely restrained even if he had breakfast at a hotel. Physical fatigue and personal stress may cause frequent verbal errors. one of the reasons.
However, the “Asahi Shimbun” believes that Prime Minister Suga will accept questions from members of the Diet from the 20th. As a national leader, Yoshihide Suga’s ability to debate will be tested. If slips of the tongue continue, it will become a destabilizing factor in the operation of the regime. .
In fact, apart from verbal errors, Japanese public opinion does not seem to recognize the policy speech itself. “The Asahi Shimbun” stated on the 19th that Yoshihide Suga’s “defensive meaning” was more prominent in this speech than in his speech to the Congress in October last year.
This fall, the terms of the Liberal Democratic Party’s president and congressmen will end. For the prime minister, this Congress is a critical moment.
However, when Yoshihide Suga mentioned in his speech that “a declaration of an emergency has been issued and a thorough countermeasure is being implemented for effective targets”, there have been repeated cheering voices in the plenary session of the House of Representatives, saying that “it is too slow.” Japan’s “Mainichi Shimbun” stated that what the prime minister needs to do is to show a clear goal of defeating Coronavirus pandemic, and a more detailed explanation than usual, instead of reading the documents prepared by the government agency according to the book, so that it cannot respond to the people’s anxiety. And distrust.
Kyodo News Agency pointed out that as the spread of COVID-19 continues, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has successively made “prompt-grinding responses.” In response to the border control measures against the allegedly highly contagious variant Coronavirus, Yoshihide Suga was forced to urgently change the policy at the request of the Liberal Democratic Party to strengthen entry restrictions.
In addition to the suspension of the travel support program “Go To Travel” nationwide, the judgment of re-issuing the emergency declaration has also further shown a “passive lag”, and the policy of taking into account the economy and pandemic prevention is counterproductive.
In addition to responding to the pandemic, Yoshihide Suga has to deal with “scandals” within the Liberal Democratic Party. Although the “Sakura Viewing Society” scandal involving former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was temporarily brought to an end when Secretary Abe was sued by the prosecutor, Yoshihide Suga has been criticized for repeatedly defending Abe while serving as Chief Cabinet Secretary.
Former Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Takamori Yoshikawa was recently prosecuted for taking bribes. This person is believed to be closely related to Suga Yoshihide. These scandals will all become the targets of blame for the opposition parties in the current Congress.
According to a poll by the Asahi Shimbun, the approval rate for the cabinet was 65% when the cabinet was formed in September last year, and it dropped to 39% in late December. According to a poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun on the 16th of this month, the approval rate of Yoshihide Suga’s cabinet further dropped to 33%, and the disapproval rate even exceeded the approval rate.
When interviewees were asked about their views on the next prime minister. , Yoshihide Suga, who was ranked first in November last year, fell to third, but Kono Taro rose to first and became a popular candidate.
For Suga Yoshihide, it is not easy to overcome many difficulties in the headwind.
