YOKOHAMA--The bombshell news that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will resign has triggered a mixture of emotional reactions from his constituents here, with some recalling the pride they felt when he took office and others filled with sadness and disappointment.

“I wish he stayed in office for at least half a year longer,” lamented Kazushige Takahashi, 70, who heads the Yokohamabashidori shopping district’s cooperative association in the Kanagawa Prefecture's port town.

For Takahashi, owner of a pharmacy in the 350-meter-long arcaded shopping district in Yokohama’s Minami Ward, the memory is still fresh of when he and fellow merchants celebrated Suga being named to replace Shinzo Abe as prime minister on Sept. 16, 2020.

His eyes were glued to a TV in the pharmacy to witness the moment.

“Yokohama has just produced a prime minister.” The thought made him cry tears of joy.

In little time, Takahashi hoisted a banner in the shopping district of 120 businesses, congratulating Suga on becoming the head of the Liberal Democratic Party and prime minister and gave away red-and-white celebratory “manju” confections to visitors.

It is not Suga's fault that the COVID-19 pandemic has not been contained, Takahashi feels.

Accomplishing that “would be difficult no matter who the prime minister is,” he said.

Still, he believes that Suga could effect change by staying for a little while longer because he said, “there are options like imposing a lockdown.”

Takahashi is now preparing to hoist another banner once the next prime minister is named.

“Suga sensei, thank you for your hard work,” it will say.

CELEBRATION SHORT-LIVED

Katsuji Kume, 53, also spoke nostalgically of the early days when Suga assumed the prime minister's post.

“There was a celebratory atmosphere, and we saw a boost in a traffic here,” recalled Kume, who runs an “unagi” grilled eel restaurant in the shopping district, which has been in business for 40 years.

But that mood lasted only for a month.

Kume has witnessed the pandemic taking a toll on the liveliness of the shopping district.

People who used to come by his store while shopping in the district “stopped coming, probably out of fears of contracting the (virus),” he said.

His sales dropped by about 30 percent from what they were in pre-pandemic 2019.

Suga started his political career as a Yokohama city assemblyman. At age 47, he won a national election to become a Diet member.

Kanagawa Prefecture’s second electoral district, which includes three wards in Yokohama--Nishi, Minami and Konan--has been Suga’s political turf ever since.

Jiro Saji, 78, remembers Suga as a newbie Diet member back then.

Saji runs a “souzai” prepared food shop that has been in business for more than 80 years in the shopping district.

Suga used to deliver a stump speech just few meters from his shop, Saji said.

“He took a trip to his hometown consistently even when there was no election scheduled,” Saji said.

99-YEN SIGN FOR 99TH PRIME MINISTER

People in the Gumyouji shopping district in the city’s Minami Ward also got their hopes up when Suga became prime minister a year ago.

In tribute to Japan’s 99th prime minister, some of the 100 or so shops in the district launched a “99-yen sale.”

Yujin Hosoi, a 47-year-old vice chairman of the shopping district’s cooperative association, has known Suga for years and had high expectations after he became prime minister.

“But because of the high expectations, I feel disappointed now,” he said.

Hosoi owns a shoe store in the district. Suga often shows up for wakes and weddings of people related to the shopping district and attended Hosoi's wedding about 20 years ago.

When they see each other, Suga would say, “Oh, Hosoi-kun! How are you?”

To Hosoi, Suga is someone who “cares about ordinary people.”

“I was excited and thought things would be better now,” he said.

But under the COVID-19 pandemic, business owners in the district have had to respond to continuous requests from the central and local governments to shorten business hours and close early.

“My business can’t last long because there is insufficient compensation,” Hosoi has heard many owners lament.

Foot traffic has not returned to normal in the district and a number of stores have notes on their shutters saying “Closed.”

But Hosoi has found hope in the progress of vaccinations.

“I wish I could see the ‘next’ phase,” he said.

Yumiko Sato, 57, still keeps one of the 99-yen price tags used in the sale as a memory.

Sato, who works at a tofu shop in the district, pulled it off a shelf.

The store sold a 150-yen tofu croquette at 99 yen. The price tag says, “In commemoration of the birth of Prime Minister Suga.”

The store used the price tag until December when Suga drew strong criticism for eating a steak dinner in Ginza with a group of people while the central government was urging the public to refrain from dining in groups to curb COVID-19 cases.

Sato decided to continue the 99-yen sale but covered up the celebratory message on the price tag.

But she said she kept one as a souvenir.

“I can’t throw it away,” she said. “Because I still want to support (Suga).”

But like Hosoi, Sato's business has been hit hard by the pandemic. Sales at her tofu store have dwindled to one-fifth of pre-pandemic levels.

In August, a customer told her that their relative had died from COVID-19. Hearing about this made Sato fear the virus had closed in on her, she said.

“Handling the coronavirus is an uncharted territory,” she said. “No matter who carries out the task, people would complain. (Suga) did a good job.”

But the current infection situation makes Sato ponder, too, if Suga was more suited to work behind the scenes rather than to be a leader.

Nevertheless, “Politics can wait,” Sato said. She hopes lawmakers will “work as one to contain the coronavirus for the people.”

“Otherwise, we will reach our limit,” she said.

‘WISH HE HAD TRIED HARDER’

Masaji Wakui, 70, who runs a 14-seat tempura restaurant in the shopping district, stared at the near-empty dining space.

Since the eatery stopped serving alcohol, dinner customers have disappeared, he said.

Complying with the local government’s request, Wakui has been closing the restaurant at 8 p.m. and has removed alcoholic beverages from the menu.

In normal times, Wakui would serve dinner to 10 or so customers. But now, he only gets one or two customers each night.

Typically, from November to March, the restaurant serves hot pot dishes. But Wakui may cut the winter specialties from his menu if the no-alcohol request continues.

When Suga visited the district several years ago, Wakui shook his hand, and still recalls the feel of it.

“It was not the hand of a salaryman,” Wakui recalled. “The hand was thick and belonged to someone who has experienced hardships.”

Wakui felt a bond with Suga.

“I was cheering for him," he said. "I wish he had tried harder.”

But another man who owns a business in the district offered a much harsher judgment of Suga.

“In the beginning, I cheered for him because he is local,” he said. “But it has gotten us--people around me and the shopping district--nowhere.”

The Suga administration has implemented many restrictions, which “turned sour,” the man said.

“The election result proves it,” he said, citing that a candidate backed by Suga lost in the recent Yokohama mayoral race.

Under the pandemic, many of his acquaintances who own bars or restaurants in the city have suspended their businesses one by one out of fear over unexpected government restrictions.

Meanwhile, Suga insisted on holding the Tokyo Olympics as scheduled “as proof of prevailing against the coronavirus.”

Before and during the Games, cases of COVID-19 continued to rise in the capital.

The man said he feels “empty.”

“We keep losing to the coronavirus after all,” he said.

He wants the next prime minister to be someone who “looks toward ordinary people.”

“I just want to return to normal life soon. Nothing else,” he said.

(This article was written by Rikuri Kuroda and Keita Yamaguchi.)