Japan's Abe wins party leadership, set to be PM

TOKYO, Sept 20: Shinzo Abe, a conservative advocate of a more muscular Japanese foreign policy, was overwhelmingly elected ruling party leader today setting the stage for him to be chosen as prime minister next week.

Abe, who will become Japan's first prime minister born after World War Two, has pledged to rewrite Japan's pacifist constitution, forge even tighter security ties with close ally Washington and put more patriotism into Japanese classrooms.

He has also promised to seek a thaw in ties with China and South Korea, chilled by outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine. But he has stressed that better relations require efforts on all sides.

''It's important that leaders meet each other periodically for talks,'' he told public broadcaster NHK.

''I hope to make efforts towards that end.'' But he said he did not know if such a meeting could be held with China this year. There is speculation he may meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao after becoming prime minister.

Abe took 464 of the 702 valid votes from LDP lawmakers and party chapters, against 136 for Foreign Minister Taro Aso and 102 for Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki.

Lawmakers applauded when Koizumi cast his ballot in the contest that brings down the curtain on the reign of one of Japan's most colourful and popular leaders.

Abe, who turns 52 tomorrow, has promised to pursue growth while pushing economic reforms begun by Koizumi, who took power in 2001 vowing to cut his party loose from the grip of vested interests and reduce the government's heavy hand on the economy.

''The Liberal Democratic Party has pursued an ideal of making Japan richer and a country with pride,'' Abe told party lawmakers after the vote. ''I would like to keep that fire going and carry on the will to push ahead with reforms.'' Abe's party victory all but ensures his selection as prime minister when parliament convenes on September 26 because of the LDP's grip on the lower chamber.

The soft-spoken Abe has long topped the list of politicians Japanese voters prefer to see succeed Koizumi, making him the candidate of choice for a majority of LDP lawmakers looking ahead to elections for parliament's upper house next summer.

ASIAN TIES, ECONOMIC REFORM

Abe, first elected to parliament in 1993, became a household name four years ago for his tough stance in a feud with North Korea over Japanese citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang decades ago.

Now he faces the dual challenges of repairing ties with Beijing and Seoul and keeping economic reforms on track while addressing voter worries about the widening social gaps many see resulting from Koizumi's reforms.

In Beijing, state news agency Xinhua quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang as saying China hoped Abe would ''suit his actions to his words, and make concrete efforts to improve China-Japan relations''.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lee Kyu-hyung said in Seoul: ''We hope strained ties between South Korea and Japan can be repaired with the start of the new government in Japan and relations can develop in a future-oriented and friendly manner.'' Abe has defended Koizumi's pilgrimages to Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honoured along with the nation's war dead.

He has sidestepped the issue of Japanese leaders' responsibility for the war and visited Yasukuni in the past, but has declined to say if he would pay his respects there as prime minister -- an ambiguity some see as leaving the door open to better ties with Beijing and Seoul.

Abe, a third-generation politician, is thought unlikely to adopt Koizumi's combative approach in forging ahead with economic reforms and so far has not fleshed out details of how he intends to get a handle on Japan's bulging public debt.

Financial market players are looking to see who gets plum cabinet posts for further clues to his stance toward reform.

Abe said one priority in the session of parliament from next Tuesday would be revising a 1947 US-drafted law on education to make cultivating ''love of country'' an educational goal.

Another would be to extend a law allowing Japanese ships to refuel vessels in the Indian Ocean as part of the US-led operation in Afghanistan, he said.

Reuters