Taro Aso, appointed minister for economic and fiscal policy and information technology on Tuesday, is a former Olympic competitor and grandchild of the late Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.

Aso, 60, assumed the post of director general of the Economic Planning Agency in 1996 under then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The EPA was absorbed into the Cabinet Office as part of a government move to restructure earlier this month.

A native of Fukuoka, Aso entered politics after serving as president of a regional coal mine company long owned by his well-to-do family in Kyushu.

Aso, a graduate of Gakushuin University, has cultivated close relations with a number of important figures. He is married to a daughter of former Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki and his sister is the wife of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, a cousin of the Emperor.

At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, he represented Japan in the trapshooting event.

First elected to the House of Representatives in 1979, Aso has held key posts in the Liberal Democratic Party mainly in the fields of education and foreign affairs.

The seven-term Lower House member, who supported former LDP President Yohei Kono, currently foreign minister, as deputy secretary general, most recently held the post of director general of the LDP's Treasury Bureau.