Japan's new PM Yoshihide Suga, self-made and strong-willed

TOKYO (AP) — Before he got Japan’s top government job, Yoshihide Suga was known as a “shadow” prime minister and the right-hand man for his long-serving predecessor.When Shinzo Abe announced last month he would resign due to ill health, his chief Cabinet secretary, Suga, said he would come forward to pursue Abe’s unfinished work. “I jumped into politics, where I had no connection or relatives, literally starting from zero,(asterisk) he said Monday.Suga was elected to the lower house of parliament in 1996 at age 47, a late start compared to politicians like Abe, a third-generation blue-blood politician elected to parliament at age 29.Suga was a loyal supporter of Abe since Abe’s first stint as prime minister from 2006 to 2007, and helped Abe return to power in 2012 and become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.Suga has said his top priorities will be fighting the coronavirus and turning around a Japanese economy battered by the pandemic.