Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe just celebrated his 52nd birthday. He could not have wished for a better birthday present: the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for the past six decades, overwhelmingly voted him in as the new president, replacing the retiring Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
With the LDP's control of the lower house, Mr Abe is set to become the new prime minister of the world's second largest economy next week.
Like his predecessor, Mr Abe belongs to a political family dynasty that goes back three generations. His grandfather, an accused war criminal, went on to become prime minister in the late 1950s; his great uncle took the same position a decade later; and his father was foreign minister.
Like Mr Koizumi, Mr Abe comes to power with a lot of media worship and fanfare, riding a wave of high popularity with great expectations from the Japanese public. Mr Koizumi successfully created a facade of being the champion of reform, with little substance.
Similarly, Mr Abe has painted himself as the poster boy of 'creating a new and beautiful nation'.
But Mr Abe is much younger than Mr Koizumi, 64. In fact, the new leader is Japan's youngest post-war prime minister, and the first one born after the second world war. Perhaps he represents a new generation with new energy. But Mr Abe has very little to show for himself other than his handsome, TV-savvy image carefully created for a largely uncritical Japanese media.
