Yoshihide Suga has been formally elected Japan's prime minister in a parliamentary vote.
Mr Suga previously served as the right-hand man to his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who was the country's longest-serving prime minister and stepped down due to ill health.
Mr Abe resigned earlier in the day and has pledged his support to the new government, with Mr Suga to launch his own cabinet later on Wednesday.
"I devoted my body and soul for the economic recovery and diplomacy to protect Japan's national interest every single day since we returned to power," Mr Abe told reporters at the prime minister's office before heading into his final Cabinet meeting.
He said his health was improving, thanked the public for their support and asked them to support his successor.
Mr Suga, a self-made politician and the son of a strawberry grower in the northern prefecture of Akita, has stressed his background in promising to serve the interests of ordinary people and rural communities.
