I don’t typically follow all the political news in Japan; however I came across this article today about Yoshihide Suga, the new Prime Minister of Japan. So I figured I should read it and be at least minimally aware of the political goings-on there.
Japan’s Ruthless New PM Is a Control Freak Who Muzzled the Press, Jake Adelstein, The Daily Beast as republished at Yahoo News, Sept. 14, 2020.
This article is highly critical of Suga (and Abe too), describing them (and especially Suga) as a ruthless control-freak, mired in corruption and scandal, with ties to yakuza, squelching the press and any reporters who ask too many questions, and likewise any bureaucrats who don’t toe his line. Also squelched a rape accusation against one of his buddies.
Sounds to me a lot like the hypothetical “next Trump only competent” that we’ve worried about in other threads here.
ETA: Direct link to Daily Beast article (paywalled) but the copy at Yahoo seems to be the complete story too: