TOKYO (Reuters) - Shinzo Abe, a conservative advocate of a more muscular Japanese foreign policy, was overwhelmingly elected as ruling party leader on Wednesday, setting the stage for him to be chosen prime minister next week.
Abe, who will become Japan's first prime minister born after World War Two, has pledged to rewrite Japan's pacifist constitution, forge even tighter security ties with close ally Washington and put patriotism back in Japanese classrooms.
He has also promised to seek a thaw in ties with China and South Korea, chilled by outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a Tokyo war shrine. But he has stressed that better relations require efforts on all sides.
"The Liberal Democratic Party has pursued an ideal of making Japan richer and a country with pride," a determined-looking Abe told party lawmakers after the vote. "I would like to keep that fire going and carry on the will to push ahead with reforms."
Abe took 464 of the 702 valid votes from LDP lawmakers and party chapters, against 136 for Foreign Minister Taro Aso and 102 for Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, his rivals.
Lawmakers applauded when Koizumi, wearing a blue suit and red tie, cast his ballot in the contest that brings down the curtain on his more than five years as LDP leader, during which he battled his party's old guard to push reforms.
Abe, who turns 52 on Thursday, has promised to pursue growth while pushing economic reforms begun by Koizumi, who took power in 2001 vowing to cut his party loose from the grip of vested interests and reduce government's heavy hand on the economy.
His party victory all but ensures his selection as prime minister when parliament convenes on Sept. 26 because of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's grip on the lower chamber.
The soft-spoken Abe has long topped the list of politicians Japanese voters prefer to see succeed Koizumi, making him the candidate of choice for a hefty majority of LDP lawmakers looking ahead to elections for parliament's upper house next summer.
Abe, first elected in 1993, became a household name four years ago for his tough stance in a feud with North Korea over Japanese citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang decades ago.
ASIAN DIALOGUE OR FRICTION?
Now Abe faces the dual challenges of repairing ties with Beijing and Seoul and keeping economic reforms on track while addressing voter worries about the widening social gaps many see resulting from Koizumi's reforms.
"I like Abe's basic stance on policy. He has good relations with the United States and I like his strong attitude towards North Korea," said Tomoya Minakawa, a 39-year-old IT engineer.
"I want the next prime minister to improve relations with China and South Korea," he added. "I'm not sure if Abe can do that, but I support him."
Abe, a third-generation politician, is thought unlikely to adopt Koizumi's combative approach in forging ahead with economic reforms and so far has not fleshed out details of how he intends to get a handle on Japan's bulging public debt.
"Frankly, I don't know much about his policies. I just know that he's popular, not whether his policies are good or not," said Hiroshi Sase, 36, who works for an employment agency.
Attention is already turning to the question of who will be awarded plum cabinet posts.
Aso is expected to get either a top party post or a cabinet portfolio after campaigning on a platform that echoed Abe's own.
Tanigaki, who clashed with Abe over Yasukuni and when to raise Japan's 5 percent sales tax, has already said he would not remain in the cabinet if he lost the LDP race.
Abe has defended Koizumi's pilgrimages to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honoured with war dead.
He has also has sidestepped the issue of Japanese leaders' responsibility for the war and visited Yasukuni in the past.
He has declined to say whether he pay his respects there as prime minister, an ambiguity some see as leaving the door open to better ties with Beijing and Seoul.
