Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (Shinzo Abe) is a man's mission: to erase the stain of bitter defeat, this month's victory in national elections, to achieve personal political redemption.
With his Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition (LDP) back in power since December, but to ensure a handsome victory in the July 21 vote for the upper house of parliament, Abe could forgive his speed a little slow.
However, allies and critics agree, will not rest until the vote count and his ruling coalition in the control chamber, reversing the defeat, led to his resignation, six years ago, 58-year-old heir to the elite political family.
"I guess history is" Fortune "magazine's wheels turn by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe LDP-led encounters in the past (2007) on the house of the election, and cause us to lose power a crushing defeat," Shinzo Abe, a close ally of administrative Yoshihide Suga cabinet secretary told a news conference last week, the official start of the campaign.
"We must solve this Upper House election in Parliament by splitting so that Abe can finally get his revenge from six years ago failed."
MPs on the six-year period of service, half the seats are contested every three years, so in the upcoming election to fill those seats stake in 2007.
When he successfully popular Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe, in September 2006 - 52 years old - has a high support rate. Ten months after the troubled, his popularity in his cabinet and the public anger at the loss of pension records scandals eroded Abe's Liberal Democratic Party leader, since it was founded in 1955, its worst election defeat.
He clung to power suddenly quit a few months ago, due in parliament, the opposition-controlled upper house key bills and prevent deadlocks in the face of ill health his chronic ulcerative colitis flare.
LDP prime minister for two years and more than two years after the LDP lost power for the novice Democratic Party of Japan in 2009, the history of the lower house investigation.
"Frustration has been deeply imprinted on my heart," Abe told a news conference after the end of the parliamentary session late last month. "I can not lose the Senate election."
Abe spent a lot of the next five years to restore his health and repair his reputation with the same conservative lawmakers and corporate executives support. To 2012, he was ready with another run in the Premiership. He received a rare second chance to become prime minister after the LDP and its junior partner swept out of the Democratic Party in the lower house elections in December.
Nothing is taken for granted
Abe has been in campaign mode since.
A string of overseas visits, frequent interviews, domestic photo op events and using social media, including Facebook to keep him constantly in the public eye.
Nonstop schedule, prompting some cronies urged Abe, take a break, and even cause some concern, with the possible cause drooling, just when everything looks rosy.
"The prime minister thinks he is responsible for the loss of the Senate in the last election and the ensuing situation, he has instructed that they are not rest until the upper house election win," Economy Minister Akira Amari said in a press conference last month.
Abe no sign of victory for granted. Recalling the media had predicted in the 1998 Senate vote, the Liberal Democratic Party won only see the party lose, the then Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto flip flopped the income tax cuts in the last few days, Shinzo Abe, at the weekend warned against complacency.
He said: "If we are not on our guard, until finally, we will lose," and the other party leaders on Sunday television talk shows.
Abe insisted once won the election, he will not be distracted from his drive to revive the economy of ultra-loose monetary policy, fiscal spending and structural reforms, including deregulation mix.
But some people worry that a stronger position, he will shift to focus on a conservative agenda, including the legalization of modifying postwar pacifist constitution and strengthening the military tradition in Japan, rather than dwell on Japan's wartime past proud.
"Every country's pride in its history, so the most important thing is mutual respect," he said on Sunday television program.
Conservative, tough Abe learned many of his political ideals, his grandfather Kishi, who served as prime minister from 1957 to 1960 war cabinet ministers at the knees.
Kishi was forced to resign modified US-drafted constitution, because over the US-Japan Security Treaty, "he rammed through parliament anger, his goal was not achieved.
Abe will face a test on August 15, when many of his right wing supporters hope he can pay for his shrine in Tokyo, the Allies convicted wartime leaders as war criminals are honored with respect for the war dead.
Columbia University political science professor Gerry Curtis said: "Mr. Abe in his head - a pragmatic realist - his heart has an internal struggle," adding that Abe's emotional inclination he explained Japan's wartime action.
"As long as his head is in control, he's OK, but if he says what he really thinks, and then he got real trouble."
 



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