Skip to main content Currently Reading Japan's leader Suga tried to soften image with talk of pancakes. Polls say it hasn't worked. Simon Denyer, The Washington Post Feb. 6, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks to reporters at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo Jan. 28 after a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden.Japan News-Yomiuri photo. TOKYO - When Japan's incoming prime minister was looking for an image makeover, he probably figured you couldn't go wrong with pancakes. So out went the grim-faced bureaucrat with a reputation as a ruthless behind-the-scenes fixer. In came the humble son of a strawberry farmer, an avuncular man who was disciplined about his sit-ups routine and devoted to his wife's homemade curry soup, but had one special weakness - his love of pancakes.