Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe

The current Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, is currently serving as Prime Minister for the second time. Shinzo Abe was initially Japan's Prime Minister from September 2006 until September 2007 when he resigned due to medical issues (Infoplease, 2013). The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was the ruling party at the time, and Abe was replaced by another LDP member. Shinzo Abe continued to serve as a Member of Parliament. The LDP, as the ruling party, was defeated in 2010 by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Abe continued to serve in the Parliament as the LDP campaigned to regain control from the DPJ. While not the majority, the LDP continued to campaign to once again try to become the ruling party of Japan. Abe continued to be a strong leader of the LDP, and while his reputation had some blemishes from the 2007 period (financial scandals, cronyism etc.) he was able to successfully campaign for the LDP based on an his beliefs about an aggressive posture towards China, fiscal reform and increased federal spending. His campaign platform was labeled "Abenomics" by the local press (Infoplease, 2013).

The LDP was able to become the ruling party again in Japan, and because of Abe's leadership during the campaign and strong partisan support by the majority of the LDP, Abe was elected to his second term as Japan's Prime Minister by the lower house in December 2012. While Shinzo Abe's reputation took some battering after his resignation the first time, it appears that his strong ties to his family's political past, his aggressive stance as a conservative, and his continued desire to restore Japan's economy were more than enough for the LDP to reassume power and Abe to be designated Japan's political leader.

While Abe's personal success as a politician cannot be doubted, there is some underling family political background that provided his focus on politics in the first place. Abe was Japan's first Prime Minister to be born after the end of World War II, and there were many political figures who were his relatives on both the maternal and paternal side. His grandfather on his mother's side, Nobusuke Kisho, was one of Japan's Prime Ministers after the war, and it has been stated that, "He's inherited his grandfather's political DNA" (Encyclopedia.com, 2013). Additionally there are other male members on his father's side who served Japan as politicians. These include his grandfather, Kan Abe, who served in the House of Representatives, and his father, Shintaro Abe, who served as a Minister of Foreign Affairs (Encyclopedia.com, 2013). While Abe studied political science in college, both at home and abroad, his first foray into the job market was to work for the Kobe Steel Corporation. This lasted only a short time before Abe began to follow in his family's footsteps; marching down a long and winding political road to become Japan's current