(Image source: Bloomberg )     BY ZACH TOOMBS     Japan’s parliament selected a familiar face to fill the role of prime minister Wednesday.   Shinzo Abe will return to the top of Japan’s government, five years after his first stint as prime minister. He’s the nation’s seventh leader in just six years, ushered into office after his Liberal Democratic Party won control of Parliament’s lower house. [Video: euronews ]   Abe promised to challenge China’s claim to a string of islands in the East China Sea, known to the Japanese as the Senkaku, but The New York Times reports: [Video: NTDTV ]   “... he has played down confrontation with Asian neighbors since the elections, instead focusing his agenda on lifting Japan’s economy out of recession before upper-house elections next summer.”   Al Jazeera says that recession has resulted in virtual stagnation for the nation’s economy. Japan lost the mantle of the world’s second-largest economy to China just last year.   The new prime minister has pledged a stimulus package worth 10 trillion yen, or $120 billion, for infrastructure and emergency spending. He also wants to fight deflation by weakening currency value, aiming to increase exports by cheapening Japanese goods internationally. [Source: Bloomberg ]   Previous Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda stepped down Wednesday to make way for the new leaders. Abe’s first term was cut short in 2007 by a string of scandals within his cabinet. He told The Japan Times , this time, he wants to get it right.   He said, "I got up today with a fresh feeling. By drawing on my experience of heading a government, I'd like to run my new government in a stable manner."   Economics aside, CNN says an increasingly aggressive North Korea will be a concern, as will nuclear policy.   “Abe’s suggesting nuclear power will remain on the table, despite ongoing troubles at Fukushima.”   Abe chose another former prime minister, 72-year-old Taro Aso, as his deputy prime minister and chief of finance. But much of his cabinet will be filled by younger lawmakers. Abe says he hopes to show a departure from Japan’s revolving door politics of the past six years.