Japan prime minister promises to make the country ‘cheerful’
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.
