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Hatoyama elected new Japan prime minister
Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet have resigned en masse, paving the way for parliament to elect Yukio Hatoyama as the country's next leader.
- AP
- Published: 08:20 September 16, 2009
- Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso leaves his final news conference as prime minister at the official residence in Tokyo. Aso and his Cabinet resigned Wednesday.
- Image Credit: AP
Tokyo: Opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama has been elected prime minister of Japan.
Parliament convened in a special session to formally select Hatoyama as the new leader after Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet resigned earlier in the day.
Hatoyama's party controls 308 of the 480 seats in the body's lower chamber, which selects the prime minister. Hatoyama won 327 votes.
Hatoyama's victory ends more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule by Aso's Liberal Democratic Party, which is conservative and staunchly pro-US.
Officials at the prime minister's office say Aso and his Cabinet resigned after having their final Cabinet meeting early on Wednesday.
The resignations are a formality so that the parliament, which is now controlled by Hatoyama's party following their landslide election victory last month.
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