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| Japanese conservative Shinzo Abe voted in as PM | Japanese conservative Shinzo Abe voted in as PM |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Conservative former PM Shinzo Abe has been voted in as prime minister again by Japan's MPs, after his party's poll victory earlier this month. | |
| Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner have a two-thirds majority in the lower house. | |
| The governing Democratic Party (DPJ) suffered major losses in the poll, with leader Yoshihiko Noda stepping down. | |
| Mr Abe, who was prime minister in 2006-07, is expected to form a new cabinet later on Wednesday. | |
| He is seen as a hawkish, right-of-centre leader whose previous term in office ended ignominiously amid falling popularity and a resignation on grounds of ill health. | |
| The grandson of a former prime minister and son of an ex-foreign minister, Mr Abe, 58, has pledged to take a tough line in a territorial row with China. | |
| China has urged the new government to take "practical steps" to deal with the dispute over islands in the East China Sea. | |
| 'Abenomics' | |
| Mr Abe, 58, has also called for Japan's pacifist constitution to be revised and patriotic sentiment nurtured. | |
| The DPJ was elected in 2009 on its promise to increase welfare spending and break ties between the bureaucracy and big business. | |
| But its failure to deliver on the economy and response to the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami lost it support. | |
| This time round Mr Abe campaigned on a platform promising an end to years of economic stagnation, with more public spending and a looser monetary policy. | |
| But some economists say there is little new in Mr Abe's policies, or "Abenomics" as they have been called. | |
| He has also said he would allow nuclear energy a role in Japan's future despite last year's disaster. |