Abe, Shinzo

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.