Shinzo Abe, the runaway favorite to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has big ambitions for Japan's traditional pacifist diplomacy.
He has made no secret of the fact that one of the main goals of his political career is to release the Japanese people from what he feels is their loathing of nationalism that has been instilled throughout the postwar decades.
"Yes, your own life is precious. But I wonder if (postwar Japanese) have ever imagined that there are values to be protected even by sacrificing their lives" to defend the homeland, Abe wrote in a book published in July.