Japan's ruling party Monday chose conservative Taro Aso to be the country's next prime minister, tasking him with steering Asia's largest economy away from recession and running in high-risk elections. Aso, 68, an outspoken former foreign minister, easily won the party's leadership election, paving the way for him to succeed Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who stepped down three weeks ago amid plunging approval ratings. “We are now standing at the starting line faced with new difficulties. My duty is to meet people's expectations,” Aso said after winning the vote. The flamboyant but gaffe-prone politician -- who supports public spending to revive the Japanese economy -- won in his fourth try for the top job in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), defeating four other candidates. Aso saluted his rivals as he was proclaimed the winner at the vote inside the LDP headquarters, where the walls are filled with giant portraits of other leaders from the party that has ruled Japan almost continuously since 1955. “From this moment on, there is no conflict among the five candidates who ran in the election,” said Aso, who has charmed the public with his unabashed love of comic books. Aso received 351 out of the 527 votes, party election chief Hideo Usui said. Kaoru Yosano, the minister for economic and fiscal policy and a critic of Aso's economic policies, trailed in second place at 66 votes. The other candidates included former defence minister Yuriko Koike, who was the first woman to seek to become Japan's prime minister. She came in third with 46 votes. Aso enjoyed strong support in struggling rural areas as he has promised to use public money to stimulate the economy, a break from a long push in the LDP for free-market reforms, which Koike had pledged to bring in.
