Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, guaranteed to win the prime minister's post Tuesday, will likely bring an assertiveness to foreign policy and may redefine Japan's leadership role in Asia and the world, modeling himself as a "fighting statesman," an influential U.S. newspaper said in an editorial Friday.
Titled "Japan's Rising Son," the Christian Science Monitor described Abe as "the great-nephew and grandson of two famous nationalist prime ministers and an admirer of Margaret Thatcher."
"For starters, he's poised to talk to China directly, something (Prime Minister Junichiro) Koizumi could never do during his five years in office because of an insistence on regular visits to the controversial war memorial at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine."