Liberal Democratic Party leader Shinzo Abe, the presumptive next prime minister, is a conservative hawk who openly proposes revising the war-renouncing Constitution to bolster Japan's military capabilities.

Abe became Japan's youngest postwar prime minister in September 2006, at age 52. After about a year in office, however, he abruptly stepped down, an exit he later attributed to an intestinal disease.

The manner of his resignation and his subsequent widespread image as a leader who abandoned the top post have dogged him in the years since. But Abe, 58, now says he has overcome the disease, ulcerative colitis, thanks to a new drug.