BREAKING NEWS: Former Foreign Minister Taro Aso has been chosen as
Japan's Prime Minister becoming the first Catholic to occupy the position.
The Age reports that Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party today chose conservative former foreign minister Taro Aso to be the country's next prime minister, a party official announced.
Taiwan News reports that Mr Aso is a brash straight-talker who has criticised China's military growth and vowed to rebuild his troubled ruling party, and was widely seen as the favorite.
In their last appearances ahead of today's vote to install a new leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party - a post that brings with it the prime ministership - Aso and four other party candidates made emotional pitches to the public, stressing that they will bolster the economy and using air time to bash the opposition.
The race was decided by the party's members of parliament and representatives of its rank and file nationwide, not by the general public. But the party has used the run-up to the vote as an opportunity to try to rebuild its deteriorating standing and jockey for a better position in upcoming parliamentary elections.
Aso stressed that, with economic uncertainty reverberating around the world, these are not times try out an untested opposition.
"The greatest concern right now is the economy," he told a crowd of supporters. "America is facing a financial crisis ... we must not allow that to bring us down as well."
The abrupt resignation of Yasuo Fukuda forced the Liberal Democrats to call the vote for the party presidency.
Aso, who has led from the start, ran against economic minister Kaoru Yosano, young lawmaker Nobuteru Ishihara and two former defense ministers, Shigeru Ishiba and Yuriko Koike, who is also the first woman to run for the post.
Aso was on Japan's 1976 Olympic shooting team and has also made much of his love for manga comic books.
The Taiwan News says that over the past two weeks, Aso has tried to counter critics who say he is too direct. He has reassured the party's conservative base that he will continue to seek a strong alliance with Washington, which has long been a cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy.
SOURCE
Aso chosen as Japan's next PM: Ruling Party (The Age, 22/9/08)
Aso leads race to replace Japan prime minister (Taiwan News, 21/9/08)
LINKS
Taro Aso (Wikipedia)