TOKYO (Sputnik) - The Japanese government resigned on Tuesday in order to enable Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to form a new cabinet of ministers, local media reported.

In a couple of hours, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced the composition of new government.

According to the NHK broadcaster, only six of the country's 18 ministers retained their posts. These are the key ministers, who seem to be Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's closest associates: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, Foreign Minister Taro Kono, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko, Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Keiichi Ishii, Economic Revitalization Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, and Suga himself.

The remaining 12 ministers are new to their posts.

In late September, Abe was re-elected as Japanese prime minister, winning 553 out of 807 votes in support of his candidacy for the post of the president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

It was expected earlier that only a third of 18 incumbent ministers would retain their posts in the new government, in particular, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko, the Kyodo news agency reported.

The new cabinet is set to be approved by the emperor of Japan later on Tuesday, after which it will be considered officially formed.

In July, Japan's opposition parties submitted a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Lower House after a meeting of their leaders. Abe's cabinet successfuly survived the vote back then