Tokyo ? Ruling party leader Taro Aso was elected Japan’s next prime minister in the lower house of parliament today. The election ensured Aso’s victory despite an expected vote in the upper house for the opposition.

Aso, who was chosen president of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday, had already begun piecing together a Cabinet expected to include a fellow outspoken hawk as finance chief.

The right-leaning former foreign minister will confront a country wracked by political divisions and concerns over the economy, which has stalled in recent months amid the ballooning financial crisis in the United States.