⁍ Yoshihide Suga will pursue economic structural reforms through a mixed bag of policies.

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⁍ Suga’s plans for structural reforms will focus more on spurring competition.

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⁍ An initial need to consolidate popular support means he will first target quick policy wins.

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– Japan has a new prime minister—and he’s no Shinzo Abe. Instead, Yoshihide Suga, the nation’s top spokesman, will be the one leading the country as it implements Abe’s “Abenomics” economic strategy to end a two-decade recession, reports the Wall Street Journal. Suga, a 55-year-old self-made man who grew up on a strawberry farm, has a reputation as a policy wonk who knows how to work the bureaucracy, Reuters reports. “Suga’s reforms look more like Koizumi’s,’ said one official. “He probably feels that it’s inevitable for some of the small, zombie firms to go under.” Among Suga’s first moves as prime minister will be to slash cellphone charges by 40%, raise the minimum wage, and increase payouts to cushion the blow from a pandemic, Reuters reports. “At this moment, he has to focus on very short-term issues like how to stimulate economy,” said a former ruling party official. “Introducing competition among mobile phone carriers could be a very symbolic policy for Suga because he loves competition,” the official said. “He hates people with vested interests.”