Suga's rating has dropped over his handling of surging COVID-19 infections and the highly contagious Delta variant. On Friday, the prime minister said he will not throw his cap in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership race in late September. It means that Suga, who took the helm a year ago after his predecessor Shinzo Abe's abrupt departure for health reasons, will resign as prime minister.
"It's an emergency that the leader responsible for the coronavirus response has announced his intention to resign at a time when (many parts of Japan) are under a state of emergency," Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of the Democratic Party for the People, said, as quoted by Kyodo.
His departure means "he is effectively taking responsibility for the failed response (to the pandemic)," the politician stated.
According to the leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, Yukio Edano, the decision is "irresponsible," as no time should be wasted to respond to the spike in COVID-19 cases, the agency reported.
Japan has recently seen a record rise in COVID-19 infections. Over the past several days, however, cases have dropped somewhat, with the country reporting 16,738 new cases on Friday, some 9,000 less than a week ago.