Big Japanese News
I’m not sure if this made American News, but this is very big news in Japan.
From The Japan Times Online:
Abe made prime minister
Earlier in the day, Abe was elected prime minister with the majority vote held by the LDP and its coalition partner, New Komeito, in the House of Representatives. Abe secured 339 votes of the 476 cast in the Lower House, compared with 115 votes for Ichiro Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan. In the House of Councilors, Abe received 136 of the 240 votes cast, while Ozawa [Candidate for The Democratic Party of Japan] got 85.
Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe names his Cabinet, giving most of the posts to his close aides and people who actively supported him during the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election. The 52-year-old president of the ruling LDP is the youngest postwar prime minister and the first to be born after World War II.
Taro Aso, Abe’s rival in the LDP presidential race, was reappointed foreign minister, where he will continue efforts to mend ties with China and South Korea.
The repeated visits by Abe’s predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, to Yasukuni Shrine have chilled Japan’s relations with the two Asian neighbors and they refused to hold summits with him.
Abe also increased the number of special advisers to the prime minister to five from two. Issues they will deal with include national security, Pyongyang’s abductions, economic and fiscal policy, education reform and public relations.
If you want to read the whole stories and more about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe you can use this link: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060927a1.html
Big News thought you’d like to know.
~J
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hey Josh- Your mother gave me this address and you are doing a magnificnet job on this blog-FACINATING! Love the pictures- Very informative and just fun to read.
Yes-Abe’s appointment was fairly big news here- At least to those of us who pay attention- An interesting turn for Japan- Should be interesting to watch.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
I guess I wasn’t paying attention.
So anyway the buzz from the locals is that Abe (Ahh Beh) is a pretty good guy and that he will probabally turn around the poor relations Japan has with S. Korea, China, and N.Korea. Plus he promises to put Japan’s rough economy back to where it was in the 80’s.