Conservative Catholic elected Japan prime minister

By JOSEPH COLEMAN
posted September 24, 2008

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.

Aso, known for his rightist leanings and acerbic wisecracks, will lead a country wracked by political divisions and spiking concerns over the economy, which has stalled amid the ballooning financial crisis in the United States. the rest image