Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga gives a press conference at his office in Tokyo on July 7, 2021. (Mainichi/Kan Takeuchi)

       TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said that while he was concerned about approval ratings when he first took his current post, he now has confidence that he is doing the right thing during an interview with a magazine that went on sale July 26.

       The interview was conducted by the monthly magazine Hanada on July 1 at the prime minister's office in Tokyo.

       Asked about the low approval ratings given to his Cabinet in public opinion polls carried out by various media outlets, Suga said, "To be honest, it did bother me when I first became prime minister." But he then went on to add, "Now, I simply do what I have to do. I take pride in the fact that what I am doing is not wrong."

       When asked about how many seats captured in the upcoming House of Representatives election he would consider as a victory, Suga refused to give any exact numbers, stating, "If I say something specific, that will cause a lot of trouble. You never know what will happen in elections." But he added, "I will only say that when it comes to parliamentary seats, I am very greedy."

       In the interview, Suga touched upon the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' provisional calculations that the lowering of cell phone rates -- a policy that Suga himself has promoted -- has reduced financial burdens shouldered by households annually by 430 billion yen (approx. $3.9 billion) and said, "I believe that it is possible to lower the burden even further. We're only halfway there."

       (Japanese original by Shun Kawaguchi, Political News Department)

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