Re: Front-runner Abe launches bid to be Japan's PM <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>HIROSHIMA (AFP) - Shinzo Abe, the front-runner to become Japan's next prime minister later this month, is set to outline his conservative agenda as he announces his bid to succeed Junichiro Koizumi. ADVERTISEMENT Abe, visiting the western city of Hiroshima for a regional meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was expected to call for revisions to the pacifist post-World War II constitution and continued economic reforms.The 51-year-old would be Japan's youngest post-war prime minister if he is elected by ruling party lawmakers on September 20 to replace Koizumi, who is retiring after five years in office despite wide popularity.Abe, the son of a foreign minister and grandson of a prime minister, was appointed by Koizumi last year as chief cabinet secretary, making him the premier's right-hand man and a leading contender to take the top job.Japanese media polls say Abe has since secured support from a majority of ruling party lawmakers, giving him an easy ride to the premiership barring an 11th-hour hiccup.Abe's rivals are Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, who has cast himself as a dove seeking to repair ties with China and South Korea, and Foreign Minister Taro Aso, a fellow conservative.Abe on Friday will likely stress his support for revising the constitution, which was imposed by the United States in 1947 and bars Japan from using force or maintaining a military."Drafting a new constitution would open up a new era," Abe said in August.Abe is expected to propose that the constitution state clearly that Japan has a military for self-defense, media have reported. Japan calls its military the "Self-Defense Forces" because of the top law.Koizumi and most Japanese support the revisions, but such moves are certain to raise criticism in neighboring countries which suffered from Japan's militarist past.Abe has faced growing calls to clarify his stance on the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead including top, or Class-A, war criminals.Koizumi has visited the shrine six times while in office, most recently on August 15, infuriating neighboring countries which see it as a symbol of past militarism.Abe has visited the shrine in the past but refused to say if he would go as premier or even to confirm that he paid a secret pilgrimage in April."I want to continue respecting those who lost their lives for the sake of the country," Abe said last month. "Since it has turned into a diplomatic issue, I have no intention to mention if I will go or pray."On the economic front, Abe is largely expected to follow Koizumi's reforms as Japan recovers from its "lost decade" after the economy plummeted in the early 1990s.But as criticism grows of the widening income gap under Koizumi, Abe will also propose a new program to help the "losers" of society, according to media reports.Abe himself comes from an elite upbringing. He graduated from Tokyo's Seikei University and studied political science at the University of Southern California before starting his career at major steelmaker Kobe Steel.Abe is seeking to replace Koizumi as president of the Liberal Democratic Party. As the party has a majority in parliament, its leader would become prime minister in a special parliamentary vote expected on September 22. In Hiroshima, Abe was also due to visit the peace memorial dedicated to victims of the world's first nuclear attack which killed more than 140,000 people on August 6, 1945.</div>http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060901/wl_as...apanpoliticsabe
