I have worked as a political journalist for over half a century. I started out covering Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's Cabinet for a Japanese newspaper. As a rookie reporter, I befriended the late Shintaro Abe, who shared the same beat with me. Later he turned to politics when he became secretary to his father-in-law, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. As a politician, he became policy chief of the governing Liberal Democratic Party and foreign minister.
In the late 1980s, Abe and Kiichi Miyazawa were among a few of the "new leaders," or possible contenders for the post of prime minister. Miyazawa, who later became prime minister, now serves as finance minister. Abe never became prime minister; he was struck down by a fatal illness.
Abe headed a major faction in the LDP that succeeded a prestigious group formerly headed by Kishi and then by Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda. Abe was the youngest faction leader. After Abe's death, former Finance Minister Hiroshi Mitsuzuka took the helm of the group. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori now heads it.