Japan's ex-PM Abe voted in for a second chance

TOKYO // Former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe was elected prime minister by parliament's lower house today, giving the 58-year-old security hawk a second chance at running the world's third-biggest economy.

Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party surged back to power in a December 16 election, three years after a crushing defeat that ended more than 50 years of almost non-stop rule by the conservative, business-friendly party.

Mr Abe, grandson of a prime minister, has vowed to push the Bank of Japan to adopt an aggressive monetary easing policy and big spending to rescue the economy from its fourth recession since 2000.

He also wants to loosen the limits of Japan's pacifist constitution on the military and has vowed to take a tough stance in a territorial row with Beijing while trying to get frayed Sino-Japanese ties back on an even keel.