The new Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, during his election.
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Koji Sasahara / AP / SIPA
Yoshihide Suga, 71, was elected the new Prime Minister of Japan by Parliament on Wednesday, replacing Shinzo Abe, who resigned for health reasons, of whom he was the loyal lieutenant.
The composition of his government is expected to be announced later today.
Yoshihide Suga, who had already triumphantly won the internal election of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) on Monday to become its new leader, has promised to continue the policies of his predecessor who had been in power since the end of 2012.
Yoshihide Suga on Wednesday obtained 314 votes out of 462 votes declared valid in the lower house of parliament, where the PLD has a comfortable majority with its coalition ally, the Komeito party.
A simple majority was required.
The results of the vote in the upper house of parliament were not yet known when the results of the lower house were announced shortly before 2:00 p.m. local time (05:00 GMT).
But the PLD and the Komeito also have a majority in the upper house, and in the event of a contrary vote between the two chambers, the vote of the lower house takes the decision.
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