Shinzo Abe's first term as Japanese PM ended after just 365 days. But the politician has reinvented himself in his second term and could become one of Japan's most influential leaders in decades, experts say.
When Shinzo Abe left the Prime Minister's official residence in September 2007, he looked a beaten man. He had been ground down by a failure to push through a series of key projects and an inability to fill the large political shoes of his immediate predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. Dogged by constant in-fighting within the Liberal Democratic Party (LPD), Abe departed citing a debilitating stomach complaint as the main reason for his resignation. On Thursday, September 25, the one-year anniversary of his election as LDP president, he will be in the United States for talks on global security and economic issues. But the 59-year-old will also be riding high in the opinion polls at home. The transformation has been remarkable and so complete that political analysts in Japan say this incarnation of Abe could be the most influential Japanese leader in decades and have a similar impact on the domestic political scene as Margaret Thatcher had on Great Britain in the 1980s. "He has the potential to change Japan just as much as Thatcher did in Britain, but that depends on the LDP allowing him to continue to lead the party in the same way as he has been doing," Steven Reed, a professor at Chuo University who specializes in Japanese political parties and elections, told DW.
