TOKYO : Transfer of Power
Japan’s lower house of Parliament is to convene in special session Thursday to name a successor to outgoing Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, whose long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party failed to win a majority in July 18 elections.
Anti-corruption campaigner Morihiro Hosokawa, head of the center-right Japan New Party, is widely expected to become the first non-LDP prime minister for 38 years. He has the backing of an eight-party majority coalition.
After the ballot, the new prime minister will choose his ministerial team, and the Cabinet will be sworn in formally at the Imperial Palace.
The LDP’s new president, Yohei Kono, is now concentrating on bringing a fresh image to his scandal-plagued party with an eye toward the next general elections, perhaps in as little as a year.
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