Nakatani

Shigeru Ishiba became Japanese prime minister on Tuesday, seeking to restore the ruling party's popularity and tackle a demographic crisis, a lacklustre economy and fears over China's military build-up.

Alien spaceships have never entered Japanese airspace, the country's defense minister has told parliamentarians, after being questioned about a possible aerial invasion by little green men.

Gen Nakatani said the nation's war planes can be scrambled whenever there is a report of an unidentified flying object (UFO) but, so far, they had not encountered visitors from space.

Japan's parliament on Dec. 24 re-elected Shinzo Abe as prime minister with an overwhelming majority following the conservative leader's mid-December election triumph.

The powerful lower house voted for the 60-year-old Abe with 328 votes against 73 for acting opposition leader Katsuya Okada.