Shinzo Abe, new president of the Liberal Democratic Party, is an ideological, young leader set to rally nationalist supporters, but his influence will be limited largely by his lack of executive experience and the growing U.S. rapprochement with China, says Japan expert Gerald Curtis.
Curtis, a professor of political science at Columbia University who is widely seen as one of the top Japan observers in the U.S., expressed his view at a recent forum at New York's Asia Society.
Japan's 5 1/2-year run under the leadership of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may soon become an "important and very entertaining intermission" in the history of modern Japanese politics, but things will likely return to normal under Abe, Curtis said.