Abe, Shinzo (1954– )

Japanese centre-right politician, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and prime minister 2006–2007. He became secretary-general of the ruling centre-right LDP in 2003 and president in 2006. He was Japan's youngest post-World War II prime minister and the first one to be born after the war. As prime minister, he worked to improve relations with China. But a succession of finance and political funding scandals made the government and party unpopular, and in September 2007 he resigned and was replaced as prime minister by Yasuo Fukuda.

In 2002, he gained national prominence for the firm stance he took against North Korea when negotiating on behalf of the families of Japanese who had been abducted to North Korea between 1977 and 1983.

Born in Nagato into a powerful political family, both his father, Shintaro Abe, and grandfather, Kan Abe, were politicians, and his mother was the daughter of Nobusuke Kishi, prime minister 1957–60. He studied political science at Seikei University and worked for Kobe Steel 1979–82. He was elected to the Diet (lower house) of Japan's parliament in 1993, representing the family stronghold of Yamaguchi prefecture. He was a deputy chief cabinet secretary in the Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi cabinets 2000–03 and became chief cabinet secretary in 2005.