The new chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, Yoshihide Suga, was confirmed on Wednesday as the country's prime minister.
The voting procedure was broadcast live on the website of the lower house of the National Diet, Japan's parliament. 314 legislators voted for Suga; in total, 462 ballots were recognised as valid.
The upper house of the Japanese parliament also confirmed his candidacy; a total of 142 out of 240 valid upper house ballots supported Suga.
The House of Representatives met in an extraordinary session on Wednesday to elect a new prime minister to form a government.
Earlier in the day, Kyodo reported that the entire government of Japan had resigned. According to the Japanese news agency, each of the ministers submitted relevant requests to the country's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
Yoshihide Suga served as chief cabinet secretary to outgoing premier Shinzo Abe. The need to elect a new prime minister came at the end of August, after Abe announced his intention to resign in connection with a chronic illness. He remained in office until the election of the new head of the cabinet.
Toshimitsu Motegi retained the post of the foreign minister. Hiroshi Kajiyama, serving as Japan's minister of economy, trade and industry, and also the minister for economic cooperation with Russia, retained both posts. Aso Taro will remain the finance minister in the new cabinet.
Abe's younger brother, Nobuo Kishi, replaced Taro Kono as Japan's defence minister. Kono, in turn, was appointed to the post of the administrative reform minister.
Meanwhile, Suga has already reshuffled the ruling party's leadership, retaining Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai and head of the Diet Affairs Committee Hiroshi Moriyama while appointing former Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura as policy chief, former Foreign Minister Tsutomu Sato as chairman of the General Council, as well as Taimei Yamaguchi, who led the Party Organization and Campaign Headquarters, as head of the Election Strategy Committee.
Suga also appointed Seiko Noda and Tamayo Marukawa, two female lawmakers, as the party's executive acting secretary general and head of its Public Relations Headquarters, respectively, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Japanese media reported on Monday that Suga was going to keep Taro Aso as the deputy prime minister and finance chief in his new cabinet. He iss also reportedly considering the appointment of Health Minister Katsunobu Kato as the chief cabinet secretary.
