What does Prime Minister Taro Aso have in common with predecessors Yasuo Fukuda, Shinzo Abe, Junichiro Koizumi and Yoshiro Mori, and others who came before them?
They are all political blue bloods whose fathers, grandfathers or other close relatives were political notables, some prime ministers. This trend is especially conspicuous in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Such aristocracy is all too common in Nagata-cho, the nation's political hub.