Japan's parliament on Wednesday formally elected the ruling party president Yoshihide Suga as the country's new prime minister.

After the votes were counted, lower house speaker Tadamori Oshima said "According to the results, our house has decided to name Yoshihide Suga prime minister."

Suga, won an easy victory, taking 314 votes of 462 valid ballots cast in the lower house of parliament, where his ruling Liberal Democratic Party holds a commanding majority with its coalition partner.

Suga has said he will prioritize keeping coronavirus infections under control and kickstarting Japan's economy and has promised to continue Abe's key policy programs.

Earlier, in a video posted on Twitter, he looked back at his record.

…秘書です。
安倍内閣官邸Twitter最終回の更新をリツイートいたします。 https://t.co/vw0Vq2y5bS

— 安倍晋三 (@AbeShinzo) September 15, 2020

"Sadly, we were not able to achieve some goals," he said, in an apparent reference to his long-held desire to revise the pacifist constitution, something Suga does not seem eager to pursue. "However, we were able to take a shot at, and achieve other divisive issues."

Suga's background, as the son of a strawberry farmer father and schoolteacher mother, sets him apart from the many blue blood political elites in his party and the Japanese political scene.