With little time to lose, Shigeru Ishiba, Japan's soon-to-be-prime minister, has begun looking to fill key posts in his administration after he was elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday.
The veteran lawmaker — who will be become prime minister next week after a parliamentary vote — got down to business quickly on Saturday, with NHK reporting that he had decided to appoint LDP election rival Shinjiro Koizumi as chair of the party's Election Strategy Committee.
A day earlier, the 67-year-old former defense minister narrowly prevailed over hard-line nationalist Sanae Takaichi in an unpredictable race with a record nine candidates to lead the LDP.
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