PASSING THE THIRD WAY TORCH:

Abe takes helm of LDP, vows to stick with reforms (HIROKO NAKATA, 9/21/06, Japan Times)

Shinzo Abe, a conservative who favors hardline diplomacy and traditional values, was elected Wednesday as the 21st president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, paving the way for him to become Japan's youngest postwar prime minister.

He will also be the first prime minister born after World War II. [...]

"I declare that I will, as the first party president to be born after (World War II), take over the flame of reform," Abe said after the results were announced. "I vow to devote myself in working with you all toward creating a new and beautiful nation."

Mr. Abe has the least time of any of the Axis of Good leaders to reform his society and the hardest row to hoe in doing so, given how sclerotic the Japanese political system is, how nativist the population is, and the absence of a significant Christian demographic component to sustain reasonable fertility rates.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 20, 2006 11:00 PM