Japan's ruling party yesterday picked Yasuo Fukuda, an advocate of warmer ties with Asian neighbours, to be the next Prime Minister, but the 71-year-old lawmaker faces a likely policy deadlock in a divided Parliament.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rallied behind Mr Fukuda, who is seen as a competent moderate, hoping he can bring stability and stave off calls for an early election after a year of scandal and missteps that ended in the sudden resignation of Shinzo Abe.
The bespectacled Mr Fukuda, almost overcome with emotion, bowed to applause from LDP lawmakers and officials when the result of the vote was announced at the party's Tokyo headquarters.
"I'm not highly educated or talented, and I don't have much experience," said Mr Fukuda, the son of a former Prime Minister.
"But despite that, you have chosen me as party president. I am moved," he said, with traditional Japanese humility.
Mr Fukuda won a solid 330 of the 527 valid votes cast against 197 for outspoken rival Taro Aso, a hawkish former Foreign Minister.
The new party leader will be chosen Prime Minister on Tuesday by virtue of the ruling camp's huge majority in Parliament's lower house, but he will face a feisty opposition that won control of the Upper House in a July election and can now delay legislation.
"The LDP must resolve to be reborn and obtain the people's trust," Mr Fukuda told a news conference, adding he wanted to hold policy talks with opposition leaders.
Mr Fukuda also faces conflicting pressures to spend more to woo disaffected voters while reining in Japan's mammoth public debt.
"Fukuda seems trustworthy and nice," said 49-year-old Shinya Yao in rural Hokkaido, northern Japan.
"I want him to improve the healthcare system. I hope he doesn't raise the sales tax."
The split in Parliament has raised fears of a policy deadlock just as Japan needs action on pensions and tax reform in the face of a wave of retiring baby boomers.
Fans of Fukuda, chief cabinet secretary under Mr Abe's popular predecessor Junichiro Koizumi, say his consensual style will be welcome after Mr Koizumi's five years of combative reforms and 12 months of scandals and upsets under Mr Abe.