Hatoyama to be elected new leader after Japan's PM quits

Published on Wednesday 16 September 2009 09:54

JAPAN'S Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet resigned today, paving the way for parliament to elect Yukio Hatoyama as the country's next leader.

They quit after holding their final Cabinet meeting early this morning.

The resignations were a formality so that parliament's lower house, now controlled by Mr Hatoyama's party following their landslide election victory last month, can vote him in as Japan's prime minister.

Mr Hatoyama's victory ends more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule by Mr Aso's Liberal Democratic Party.

Mr Hatoyama, head of the left-of-centre Democratic Party of Japan, has promised to shake-up Japan's political system, cutting government waste, reinvigorating the world's second-largest economy and focusing policies on consumers.

Parliament was to convene in a special session later in the day to formally select the new prime minister.

"I am excited by the prospect of changing history," Mr Hatoyama said.