Former chief Cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga elected by Parliament as Japan’s new prime minister, succeeding Shinzo Abe

TOKYO (AP) – Yoshihide Suga has been formally elected Japan’s prime minister in a parliamentary vote. Suga was long the right-hand man to his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. Abe resigned earlier in the day and has pledged his support to the new government. Suga is to launch his own Cabinet later Wednesday. He has said he will pursue Abe’s unfinished policies, and that his top priorities will be fighting the coronavirus and turning around an economy battered by the pandemic.