美国国家公共电台 NPR 日本首相菅义伟宣布将不参加自民党选举（在线收听）

Japan's prime minister has effectively announced his resignation.

日本首相实际上已宣布辞职。

He's been in office just under a year. General elections are coming up.

此时距离他上任还不到一年。而且大选即将举行。

The fall is shaping up to be a time of political uncertainty and change for the world's third largest economy.

对于这个世界第三大经济体来说，秋天将成为政治不确定性和变革的时期。

NPR's Anthony Kuhn joins us from Seoul to break it all down. Anthony, why is the prime minister stepping down?

NPR新闻的安东尼·库恩将从首尔就此进行详细报道。安东尼，日本首相为什么要辞职？

Well, Yoshihide Suga told reporters today that he's not going to stand for election as head of his party, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, when it holds internal elections at the — by month's end.

菅义伟今天对记者表示，其所在执政党自民党将于本月底举行选举，届时他将不会竞选该党总裁一职。

And that means that pretty much for sure he will not serve another term as prime minister.

这意味着他几乎肯定不会再连任首相。

What Suga told reporters is that he now wants to focus his efforts on handling the pandemic. And that's understandable.

菅义伟对记者表示，他现在想将精力集中在应对疫情上。这可以理解。

The bigger picture is that he has lost popularity due to the way he has handled the pandemic.

更大的图景是，由于他处理疫情的方式，他已经失去了人气。

His approval rating has plummeted to below 30%.

他的支持率已跌至30%以下。

And this has really clouded the ruling party's chances in general elections that are coming up this fall.

这确实给执政党在今秋即将到来的大选中的机会蒙上了一层阴影。

I spoke about this with Tobias Harris, who's a Japan expert at the Center for American Progress in Washington.

我和华盛顿美国进步中心的日本问题专家托拜厄斯·哈里斯谈过这个问题。

And he predicts that the ruling party could possibly lose dozens of seats in parliament in the fall vote. Let's give a listen to him.

他预测，执政党可能会在秋季投票中失去数十个议会席位。我们来听一下他的看法。

If Suga ends up leading the party, you know, into that kind of electoral outcome, he'd end up having to resign anyway.

如果菅义伟最终领导该党，是这样的选举结果，那他最终将不得不辞职。

I mean, you know, his position would truly be untenable.

我的意思是，他真的很难保住自已的职位。

There are a lot of LDP members who, I think, are looking at what's happening in their districts and just did not want to have to go into an election with him as the face of the party.

我认为，有很多自民党成员都在关注自己选区的情况，他们不想让他作为该党的代表参加选举。

And, in fact, you know, Suga's allies and ruling party candidates got trounced in local elections over the summer by voters who were pretty much unhappy at his handling of the pandemic.

事实上，菅义伟的盟友和执政党候选人在今年夏天的地方选举中惨败，因为选民对他处理疫情的方式非常不满。

So why are people so angry at Suga's handling of COVID?

那为何人们对菅义伟处理新冠病毒的方式如此愤怒？

Well, they — people think he's been slow to declare states of emergency because he's worried about the economic impact.

人们认为他迟迟没有宣布紧急状态，因为他担心经济影响。

Most of the country is now under a fourth state of emergency. But cases still are stubbornly high.

该国大部分地区目前处于第四次紧急状态之中。但病例数仍居高不下。

Japan's vaccine rollout has been very slow.

日本的疫苗推广非常缓慢。

And Suga insisted on holding the Olympics in the middle of the pandemic, despite widespread opposition.

尽管遭到广泛反对，但菅义伟坚持在疫情期间举行奥运会。

Japan now has tens of thousands of people who are sick with COVID at home, unable to get a hospital bed

日本现在有数万名新冠肺炎患者因无法获得医院床位而呆在家中，

after Suga said they — those beds should be reserved for the most serious cases.

因为菅义伟说这些床位应该留给最严重的病例。

So many Japanese people just feel like he's putting politics and economics ahead of their health.

很多日本人认为他将政治和经济置于健康之上。

Japan has had a lot of one-term leaders in recent years. So how concerned are people about political continuity and stability?

近年来，日本有多任领导人都只任一届。那人们对政治连续性和稳定性的担忧程度有多少？

Quite a bit — Suga came to power following the resignation of his former boss, Japan's longest serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who was on the job for eight years.

非常担心，菅义伟在他的前任领导、日本任职时间最长的首相安倍晋三辞职后上台，安倍晋三已在位八年。

And before him, Japan had six prime ministers in six years.

在他之前，日本在六年内换了六位首相。

So the concern is that the country is entering this — another phase of sort of like revolving door, high turnover in the top job.

因此，人们担心的是，这个国家正在进入另一个类似旋转门的阶段，即高层职位的高流动性。

And remember that the ruling party, the LDP, has held on to power for most of the past seven decades.

请记住，执政党自民党在过去70年的大部分时间里一直掌权。

So while it's not likely to lose power altogether, it looks like internal divisions and competition within the party are heating up.

因此，尽管该政党不太可能完全失去权力，但党内分歧和竞争似乎正在升温。

Japan is also a very key U.S. ally. So what does this mean for the United States?

日本也是美国的重要盟友。那这对美国意味着什么？

Well, to Japan, their alliance with the U.S. is really the cornerstone of their foreign policy.

对日本来说，他们与美国的联盟确实是他们外交政策的基石。

And Japanese leaders have gone to great lengths to build personal friendships with U.S. presidents.

日本领导人也不遗余力地与美国总统建立个人友谊。

Recently and famously, for example, Shinzo Abe bonded with Donald Trump over wagyu burgers, sumo wrestling and golf in Tokyo.

例如，最近也是著名的一次，安倍晋三在东京与唐纳德·特朗普因和牛汉堡、相扑和高尔夫建立了联系。

So whoever replaces Suga is going to have to start from scratch in bonding with President Biden.

因此，无论谁取代菅义伟，都必须从零开始与拜登总统建立联系。

As for Biden, he is counting on help from Japan with most of his Asia priorities, top among which is, you know, meeting China's challenge to U.S. primacy in Asia.

至于拜登，他的大部分亚洲优先事项都指望日本的帮助，其中最重要的是，应对中国对美国在亚洲主导地位的挑战。

So it is just not a good time for the U.S. to call Tokyo and find them consumed by domestic politics.

因此，现在不是美国致电日本政府的好时机，因为会发现他们被国内政治所吞噬。

That's NPR's Anthony Kuhn reporting from Seoul. Anthony, thanks.

以上是NPR新闻的安东尼·库恩从首尔带来的报道。安东尼，谢谢你。

Thank you.

谢谢。