And Mr Aso has chosen Shoichi Nakagawa, a potential budget-buster like himself, as finance minister.
ECONOMIST: Aso steps up to the plate; but perhaps not to stay very long
Since he became prime minister, however, Mr Aso has been on his best behaviour.
Mr Aso also appears to crave the prestige of attending the G8 summit in Italy in July.
Throughout his tenure, Mr Aso has cleverly used his power to dissolve the Diet to his advantage.
ECONOMIST: Japan's beleaguered prime minister calls an election
In the end, it will probably be Mr Aso's mediocre performance that administers the coup de grace.
Mr Aso, more hawkish than Mr Fukuda, is congenial and fairly popular, having worked the party's grass-roots organisations.
Two members of Mr Aso's cabinet have been accused of accepting illegal donations.
The more outspoken Mr Aso, the new foreign minister, is, as far as the diplomats under him are concerned, a mounting liability.
With the opposition in disarray, Mr Aso has the luxury of choice.
But the day he sacked the general, Mr Aso could not resist picking up a volume of similar views from a Tokyo bookstore.
This is bad news for Mr Aso and the LDP.
ECONOMIST: Japan's beleaguered prime minister calls an election
But for Mr Aso, Mr Kingston says, the incident has swiftly turned into a high-wire act in which he must reassure Japan's neighbours without destroying his own conservative base.
Party elders including Mr Mori, who was a disastrous prime minister himself and who has now twice anointed disastrous leaders, will now probably favour an unruffled succession in favour of Mr Aso.
The pressure on Mr Aso is especially great.
ECONOMIST: Japan's beleaguered prime minister calls an election
Mr Aso has promised to increase public spending and help families and small businesses, but some of his plans have been met by scepticism from the public and opposition from within his own political party.
The Tokyo election forced Mr Aso's hand.
ECONOMIST: Japan's beleaguered prime minister calls an election
At the time of the cabinet reshuffle, Yoshiro Mori, one of the LDP's grand old men, foisted Taro Aso onto Mr Fukuda as the party's new secretary-general.
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