Shinzo Abe elected Japan PM, picks Cabinet

JAPAN: Shinzo Abe, an advocate of tighter ties with Washington and a bigger say for Japan in world affairs, was elected Japan's prime minister by parliament on Tuesday, becoming at 52 the youngest Japanese leader since World War Two.

The hawkish Abe, a relative novice by Japanese political standards, faces the challenges of repairing ties with China frayed by predecessor Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine and keeping economic reforms on track while addressing voter concerns about widening social gaps.

In a new cabinet announced later in the day, outspoken Foreign Minister Taro Aso, 66, who shares many of Abe's conservative views, kept his portfolio, while former defence minister Fumio Kyuma, 65, was named to the defence post.

Koji Omi, 73, a former economic planning agency chief, was named finance minister, while economics professor Hiroko Ota takes over as economics minister.

Abe, elected president of the governing Liberal Democratic Party last week by a two-thirds majority, bowed to applause after being chosen prime minister by parliament's powerful lower house.

A soft-spoken, popular lawmaker whose grandfather was also prime minister, Abe has pledged to rewrite Japan's pacifist constitution, boost Tokyo's role in global affairs, and revive respect for traditional values and pride in Japan's past.

He has also promised to nurture growth while pushing ahead with the economic reforms begun by Koizumi, and give precedence to spending cuts before tax rises in the struggle to rein in Japan's huge public debt, the biggest among advanced countries.

Koizumi one of Japan's most colourful and popular leaders smiled and waved after receiving a bouquet of flowers and applause in a ceremony at the prime minister's office, as the curtain fell on his sometimes tumultuous but rarely boring reign.

Tokyo, Tuesday, AFP