Yoshihide Suga appointed new Japanese prime minister
Baku, September 16, AZERTAC
Yoshihide Suga, the newly elected president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was officially appointed as the country's new prime minister by parliament on Wednesday, becoming the country's first new leader in nearly eight years, according to CGTN.
He won 314 votes out of 462 cast by parliament's lower house members. The chamber takes precedence in electing a premier over the upper house, which was also expected to pick Suga because of a ruling bloc majority.
He is expected to form a cabinet filled with ministers who served under Abe.
Suga was born in 1948 and graduated from Hosei University in 1973 and obtained a Bachelor of Laws.
He has pledged to pursue many of Abe's programs, including his signature "Abenomics" economic strategy, and forge ahead with structural reforms, including deregulation and streamlining bureaucracy.
A plethora of challenges are ahead for the new PM, including tackling COVID-19 while reviving a battered economy and dealing with a rapidly aging society.
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