Fumio Kishida has been re-elected as Prime Minister of Japan. The parliament has approved the reappointment of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader after it had already appointed Kishida in early October to replace his party colleague Yoshihide Suga.

Of the 465 parliamentarians, 261 voted for a second term for Kishida. However, the vote was seen as a formality, as the two coalition parties had won a large majority of the seats in the elections almost two weeks ago.

Kishida is not expected to make drastic changes to existing economic, foreign and defence policies. Analysts say the former Hiroshima banker will provide continuity rather than change.

Kishida was first elected prime minister in early October after his party colleague Yoshihide Suga resigned after about a year over criticism of his corona policy. Before that, the Asian country was run for eight years by Shinzo Abe, also of the LDP. He left for health reasons.