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Suga was elected leader of the PLD on Monday with about 70% of the vote, but he still needed the backing of the country’s national legislature, the Diet, before he could officially become Prime Minister.
He won the Diet vote with 314 of 465 votes in the lower house and 142 of 240 votes in the upper house.
The new prime minister will next announce his cabinet line-up, which is expected to include a host of former Abe appointees, before being sworn in by Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon.
Suga’s appointment as Abe’s replacement is not surprising. Suga was the former Japanese leader’s right-hand man during Abe’s nearly eight years in office during his second term, holding the important position of chief cabinet secretary in his government, a combination of chief of staff and press secretary.
Suga is known as a successful political operator, who can get things done, and he worked hand in hand with the former leader to implement “Abenomics,” a series of economic policies designed to boost Japan’s ailing economy.
In fact, Suga is so closely linked to the former prime minister that Kazuto Suzuki, vice dean and professor of international politics at Hokkaido University, described him as a “replacement for Abe.”
Trouble ahead
Japan is also facing significant long-term economic and social problems, such as huge public debt and an aging population. Despite Abe’s public calls for reforms for gender equality in the workplace, critics say not enough progress was made during his time in government.
Suga will also face a referendum on his new government sooner than he would have liked. The prime minister is due to hold another general election by October 2021, although Defense Minister Taro Kono said on Wednesday that snap elections could be called next month.
CNN’s Emiko Jozuka, Joshua Berlinger, and Will Ripley contributed to this article.
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