Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Yoshihide Suga was elected Prime minister of Japan in a parliamentary vote held on Wednesday.
Yoshihide became the country’s first new premier in nearly eight years. Suga won a poll for Prime minister receiving 314 out of 462 votes in Japan’s lower house.
Following the vote, Suga is due to enter the Prime Minister’s Office as the new leader and will name his cabinet later in the day.
Earlier in the day, Shinzo Abe held his final cabinet meeting and told reporters he was proud of his achievements during his nearly eight years in power. Later, the Abe Cabinet resigned en masse.
Yoshihide Suga was on Monday became the new head of LDP after securing 377 votes in the election held to pick a successor to Shinzo Abe.
Suga, who was the chief Cabinet secretary in Shinzo Abe’s government won with a clear majority over former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and former Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who got 89 votes and 68 votes against Suga’s 377 votes.
The development comes after PM Abe announced last month that he would resign due to health problems.
