Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has learned his lesson: Instead of giving short daily media interviews, he has launched a new Facebook page to provide information to the public on his terms while conveniently avoiding the kind of verbal missteps that plagued his recent predecessors — including himself, during his 2006-2007 leadership stint.

Posting a close-up of his hand giving the thumbs-up, Abe appealed to Facebook users Thursday to overcome the nation's present difficulties together and explained that he wants to share his Cabinet's policies in an "easy-to-understand and visible" manner.

The prime minister's page had logged more than 95,000 "likes" as of Friday evening.