Japan Investors Are Glad to See the Back of an Unpopular Leader
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Stock markets soared in Tokyo after the shock resignation of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, as investors expressed hope that a new leader would lift the cloud of uncertainty that has depressed sentiment in equities for months.
Despite high polling numbers when he took over from Shinzo Abe a year ago, Suga has become deeply unpopular with the Japanese public. While Japan largely escaped the pandemic last year, Tokyo and many other regions have been under a state of emergency for most of 2021, as the country has battled successive waves of Covid-19.