Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, known affectionately as "Suga-chan" to his close friends, has risen from the strawberry fields of wintry Akita prefecture to be on the cusp of the pinnacle of Japanese politics.
He was born on Dec 6, 1948 in the town of Ogachi (now part of Yuzawa city, which is not to be confused with the more well-known Yuzawa ski resort town in Niigata) in mountainous Akita, the north-east region from where the dog breed of the same name originated.
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