TOKYO (AP) – Outspoken conservative Taro Aso took power as Japan’s prime minister on Wednesday after he overcame opposition forces in a split parliament, tasked with rejuvenating the ailing ruling party ahead of elections.
Aso was chosen as president of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday and had already begun piecing together a Cabinet expected to include a fellow hawk as finance chief.
The 68-year-old former Olympic sharpshooter was declared premier after the LDP-controlled lower house overruled the upper house, which had voted for Ichiro Ozawa, the chief of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
