Flamboyant conservative Taro Aso took charge as Japan’s new prime minister on Wednesday, pledging to work to build a ”cheerful” nation by reviving an economy in the doldrums.
The divided Parliament voted along party lines to install the former foreign minister, who appointed a Cabinet filled with fellow conservatives, including pro-spending Shoichi Nakagawa as finance minister.
With elections expected within months, the comic book-loving Aso started the job with an unusually sombre tone. He said he would push for emergency measures to revive Asia’s largest economy, which contracted in the last quarter.
”To make Japan a cheerful and strong nation — that is my mission,” Aso said. ”I truly feel the heavy responsibility of being prime minister.”
”I am especially aware of people’s worries about the economy, complaints about their everyday lives and distrust of politics,” Aso said.
Aso replaced Yasuo Fukuda, a mild centrist whose ratings dived after he raised medical costs for the elderly.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) picked Aso on Monday as its new leader by an overwhelming majority, placing its trust in a crowd-pleasing — though gaffe-prone — campaigner.
Wasting no time, Aso was to fly early on Thursday to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. US President George Bush telephoned Aso to ”reaffirm the strength of the US-Japan alliance”, the White House said.
China and South Korea both congratulated Aso, who in the past has irritated neighbouring countries with remarks about Japan’s past colonialism.
Analysts expect Aso to call a general election as early as late October in a bid to hold off gains by the rising opposition, which has pounded away at the LDP’s traditional strongholds in the countryside.
”The final battle has begun. The autumn of elections — the autumn to change the government — is coming,” said opposition chief Ichiro Ozawa, whose bloc controls one house of Parliament.
”No matter who becomes prime minister, things will remain the same” under the LDP, he said.
The LDP has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955, but Aso will be its fourth prime minister in the past two years as the party struggles over a raft of scandals and, more recently, a faltering economy.
As foreign minister, Aso entertained summits by doing a Humphrey Bogart impersonation and dancing in the costume of a samurai. — AFP
