ABSTRACT
In September 2006, seven months before the Japanese original of this book first appeared, Abe Shinzō assumed the office of prime minister as Koizumi’s successor. The Abe administration started while the afterimage of Koizumi and his forceful personality still remained vivid in the public’s eyes. The legacy of the Koizumi administration had an enormous impact on how Abe managed his politics. However, there were striking differences in how the two men exercised leadership as prime minister. What were those differences? Why did those differences arise? Looking back now for the English edition from the vantage point of 2009, I will focus this chapter on a comparison of the Abe administration’s exercise of leadership with that of the Koizumi government in order to cast the latter’s distinctiveness and significance into further relief.
