Generally speaking, the heads of state of various countries eat and live in the "office". This is no way to do things, because the leaders need to deal with a lot of things, often have work to do at night, and many people may not have a house in the capital, so most of them choose to live with the whole family in the office, so most of the places where they live are also called "Presidential Palace".
However, for Japan, the "presidential palace", that is, the prime minister's official residence, has become a decoration for a while, and both Shinzo Abe and "short-term worker" Yoshihide Suga refuse to live in the office.
What's so catty about that?
First, the house of ominousness
Strictly speaking, the number of Japanese prime ministers assassinated is not large, far lower than that of the United States. But there are very few people in various countries who can make the murderer run into the official residence and assassinate him. If it were not for the strength of Okada's men, he would have become the first serving prime minister to die in his official residence during the February 26 Coup. However, Inuyasha was not so lucky, and in the subsequent "May 15 Incident", he was killed on the spot by fanatics, leaving behind the famous dialogue.
Inuyasha: You listen to my explanation.
Fanatics: Shut up! Do it!
It was because of Inuyasha's unjust death that in 2013, members of parliament asked Shinzo Abe: Why don't you move into the prime minister's residence? Is it because there have been people who have died inside?
However, after World War II, there was no longer a prime minister assassinated in Japan, but the official residence was still not quiet. In 2015, a drone broke into the japanese prime minister's official residence and after testing, it found trace amounts of radioactive elements on it, which caused an uproar at the time.
2. The Prime Minister who does not enter the official residence
In the face of the lawmaker's inquiry, Abe replied that the reason why he did not move in was because the official residence did not have his own luxury. No one is willing to move from the villa to the "tube building" to live, and it seems that the prime minister is not willing to aggrieved himself.
Abe has the courage to say so, because his family has accumulated three prime ministers, and the rest are also members of Parliament for the first time. Years of accumulation must be a solid family, so it is not surprising that the home is more luxurious than the office.
But his successor, Suga Yoshihide, also refused to move into the mansion, which is a bit unreasonable.
Suga is from an ordinary peasant background, and it is indeed a little difficult for such a family to buy a house in Tokyo by entering politics. Japan stipulates that members of the Diet can apply for dormitories for parliamentarians, provided that they cannot have a house within the 23 core blocks of Tokyo. After becoming a member of parliament, Suga lived in the parliamentarian's dormitory for a long time.
It is more than a ten-minute walk from the parliamentarian's dormitory to the prime minister's residence, but japan is prone to earthquakes, and although it will not damage the dormitory and the official residence, the road between them can be damaged.
For this reason, Abe bought a high-power motorcycle that could be used on the road after the disaster, but Suga did not have a motorcycle. He was often criticized by MPs: there is no sense of urgency!
There is also a saying that the prime minister's official fortunes are not good. With the exception of Shinzo Abe, Japan changed prime minister almost every year. However, this statement is not scientific, Suga did not stay in the prime minister's official residence, but the term of office is also a little more than a year.
Third, the waves that followed
The author speculates that Suga's failure to stay in the mansion is first of all to emphasize his civilian status in order to gain the favor of voters. Japanese newspapers are very boring and will publish the prime minister's trip to the previous day in the newspaper. Suga's approach allows the public to see him living in a humble dormitory.
The second is to reassure yourself. From 2012, Suga was appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary until 2020, when Shinzo Abe announced his resignation.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary is equivalent to the Secretary-General of the Government, one is responsible for coordinating communications between other departments of the Cabinet; the other is to summarize and select various information within the Party, at home and abroad, and submit it to the Prime Minister; and the third is that the Prime Minister cannot exercise his power for 5 consecutive days for various reasons, and is represented by the Chief Cabinet Secretary.
The chief cabinet secretary's ability to process information is directly related to the prime minister's final judgment, and it can be said that it is related to the fate of a country. And 8 years of work experience proves that Suga is fully qualified for this job.
After Suga became prime minister, the chief cabinet secretary was Katsunobu Kato. We want to focus on this person who has been dubbed "little genius" on the Internet. Kato Katsunobu was originally a grassroots civil servant, but was later selected as secretary by Liberal Democratic Party leader Kato June. The latter wanted the former to become his heir, and according to Japanese law, he would be added to the throne and become Kato's son-in-law and adopted son.
Kato Katsunobu, who wanted a future, married Kato's eldest daughter in June, and as a result, the eldest daughter "loved freedom all her life", and left her husband to run to Harvard in the United States to study.
Put it on the average person, you can only endure. After all, marriage is an appendage, and the political future is the ultimate goal. But Kato Katsunobu couldn't stand it, he couldn't keep a widow, so he turned around and married Kato June's second daughter.
Kato Katsunobu, who was married and had a double harvest in the future, wanted to show his fists in the political arena by virtue of the old man's yu wei, but his ability was limited, and he failed in both elections, and finally became the secretary general of Suga Yoshihide. Katsunobu Kato's version of chief cabinet secretary can be said to have taken the comic to the extreme, which is why he is called a "little genius".
His main "achievements" include redefining the "close contact crowd" during the epidemic. He believes that as long as he touches patients with masks, he is not considered a close contact group;
Members of Congress asked for week's patient data, Kato Katsunobu asked three of his men to do the math on the spot, and Congress shut down several times for this;
"Exposed" the Japanese family bottom, said the national N95 masks and protective clothing added up to 30 sets. Later added that the data after 2017 is not known ...
For such a secretary-general, presumably Suga Yoshihide, who is from the secretary-general, cannot be used with confidence. Instead of waiting at the mansion for Kato Katsunobu to report the day's information to him, it was better to get it himself.
I live in the parliamentarians' dormitory, surrounded by parliamentarians. Suga can learn all kinds of news at close range, coupled with his years of information aggregation and screening ability, presumably everything must be assured.
From his decision-making, you can also see his character. Under the advice of experts and media reports, he still did not strictly control the COVID-19 epidemic, but encouraged everyone to travel and firmly hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The helplessness behind it
Some people will ask why Suga chose kazumi as his secretary-general if Kato Katsunobu was so talented.
That's because he can't do it.
Suga was able to become prime minister because three of the LDP's five major factions voted for him to be the LDP's president first and then prime minister. Then the price of support is that you have to use these major factions of people.
Not being interested in the Prime Minister's official residence is also a manifestation of an uninterested interest in the Prime Minister's office. Tell everyone, I listen to you, and I can do whatever I need. However, the new crown epidemic has become the main opponent to crush Suga Yoshihide, and its reverse operation of epidemic prevention has lost the hearts and minds of the LDP, and the support rate of the people has repeatedly reached a new low. The young and strong factions in the Liberal Democratic Party had long been dissatisfied and had elected former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida to compete.
Kishida's attitude exceeded many people's expectations. He had hoped that Abe would allow him to take over, but failed. I thought that the regime would be smoothly transitioned, but Kishida Fumio, who has always been indecisive, competed in a high-profile manner at the instigation of the Shaozhuang faction.
Suga did not even have a basic posture of resistance, and directly abandoned his weapons and fled. Kishida became Japan's 100th Prime Minister.
And finally
Whether it is a matter of faith or a show. Yoshihide Suga, who studied his predecessor's insistence on not moving into the prime minister's residence, ended his job hastily.
In fact, if you look at Japan's political arena objectively, there is almost no long-term stability. No matter who comes to power and who steps down, it is a transaction of interests between the door valves. It may be that Suga is too smart, and the civilian-born self is only their spokesman.
Since you can't be the master, you just don't even pretend to be it.